Chairman, CEO
Total compensation: $15,083,018 for the year ended Dec. 31.
Salary: $1,025,000
Nonequity incentive pay: $6,258,000
Other compensation: $608,761
Exercised stock options: $0
Value realized on vesting shares: $7,191,257
New stock options: 191,808
Total 2016 shareholder return: 7.7 percent
Note: Cracchiolo's compensation declined 60 percent from the $41.8 million he realized in 2015, which included gains from long-held stock options. In 2016, Cracchiolo did not exercise any of his vested stock options.
Cracchiolo has been CEO of Ameriprise Financial since it spun off from American Express Co. in 2005, and led its predecessor since 2002. During that time, the value of his accumulated stock options has risen as Ameriprise stock became one of the best-performing stocks in the financial services industry.
In 2015, Ameriprise stock had a difficult year, but shares rebounded late in 2016 and since becoming a public company, Ameriprise's total shareholder return has been 286 percent.
Cracchiolo's base salary remained the same as 2015 but he earned a smaller annual incentive bonus for the second straight year and the value of restricted stock awards that vested in 2016, $7.2 million, was down 48 percent from the prior year.
The company's performance rating against annual financial and strategic goals was better in 2016 than in 2015 but bonuses were down because the compensation committee used some downward discretion.
The compensation committee set goals at the beginning of 2016 when market conditions were more volatile, but the operating environment improvement, especially in the back half of the year, was not anticipated.
The rise of target-date funds, though criticized as a one-size-fits-all approach, has relieved workers of the task of creating and managing portfolios. The only decision is guesstimating the year of retirement.
