EX-CEO of USAA got millions in severance
Former USAA CEO Stuart Parker had a cushy landing following his departure last year from the San Antonio insurance and financial services company.
Parker, who retired Jan. 31, 2020, after leading USAA for almost five years, received at least $6.5 million in severance payments.
The golden parachute accounted for more than half of the $11.3 million in total compensation five USAA insurance companies paid him last year.
Parker collected $4.8 million in compensation, excluding severance, or about $200,000 less than the roughly $5 million in total compensation he received from the companies in 2019.
His 2020 compensation included $336,473 in salaries and nearly $3.9 million in bonuses. By comparison, he received $536,016 in salaries and just under $4 million in bonuses in 2019.
Meanwhile, compensation from the insurers dropped considerably for Wayne Peacock, Parker’s successor and former president of USAA Property and Casualty Insurance Group.
Peacock got about $1.9 million in total compensation last year versus $4.9 million in 2019. It’s not clear why his compensation from the insurers dropped $3 million, or 61 percent.
The figures are disclosed to the Nebraska Department of Insurance, which requires insurers that
do business in the state to report executive compensation.
The figures don’t provide a complete picture of what the CEO and some other executives actually receive from USAA because the reports don’t include compensation from the non-insurance parts of its business.
The privately held USAA doesn’t relish addressing its executives’ compensation.
“We consider compensation information to be competitive, confidential and proprietary,” a USAA
spokesman said in an email.
The five USAA companies that report compensation to Nebraska are United Automobile Association, USAA Casualty Insurance Co., USAA General Indemnity Co., Garrison Property and Casualty Insurance Co. and USAA Life Insurance Co.
Peacock received compensation from all but USAA Life.
The four other insurers paid Peacock a total of $414,897 in salaries, about $1.1 million in bonuses and about $341,000 in other compensation last year. He received salaries totaling $743,462 and bonuses of almost $3.2 million in 2019.
USAA’S board retains an independent compensation adviser to ensure the company’s programs align with competitive market levels and best practices found in publicly traded companies, the USAA spokesman said.
USAA recently awarded most of its employees a 2020 bonus equal to 10.1 percent of their annual salary, the lowest amount since at least 2007. It marked the sixth straight year the bonus had declined. About 19,000 of USAA’S 35,000 employees are in San Antonio.
A USAA spokesman explained the drop in bonus to the company not meeting its goals in some areas. The bonus was 14.5 percent in 2019.
Here’s the total compensation the insurers paid other executives:
• James Syring, who succeeded Peacock at USAA Property and Casualty Insurance Group, got about $3.6 million last year. His compensation for 2019, when he served as USAA’S chief administrative officer, wasn’t reported to Nebraska.
• Randy Temeer, insurance general manager, received almost $1.3 million last year, a slight increase from 2019.
• Arthur “David” Cummings, chief property and casualty actuary, received just under $1.2 million. His 2019 compensation wasn’t entirely reported.
• Laura Bishop, who retired last year as USAA’S chief financial officer, received more than $1.4 million last year, a slight drop from 2019.
• Torben Ostergaard, who recently retired as USAA’S chief risk officer, received nearly $1.2 million last year, slightly less than in 2019.
• Michael Merwarth, former executive vice president of enterprise strategy and marketing, got just under $1.4 million. That included about $440,000 in severance. His 2019 compensation wasn’t disclosed.