MetLife Alters Comp to Avoid Berkshire
NEW YORK (
)--
MetLife
(MET) - Get Report
changed its compensation guidelines for senior executives in order to avoid comparisons to
Berkshire Hathaway
(BRK.A) - Get Report
.
MetLife's compensation committee made the change after Berkshire Hathaway was added to the Standard & Poor's Insurance Index, which is used by MetLife to determine appropriate pay for senior managers.
But since Berkshire has a large portion of its business outside of the insurance and the financial services industry -- such as
Burlington Northern Santa Fe
-- MetLife's compensation committee determined the inclusion would throw off MetLife's compensation metrics.
"Without this prospective change, BHI would comprise a disproportionate component of the Insurance Index Comparators, representing over 40% of the total market capitalization of the Insurance Index Comparators as of October 21, 2010," said
Berkshire has a 31 percent weighting in the S&P 500 Insurance Index, while MetLife has a weighting of 9.1 percent, according to
MetLife's CEO Robert Henrikson made $11.6 million in total compensation last year,
according to a March proxy filing.
--Written by Maria Woehr in New York.
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