Dimon had no specific knowledge of Berkshire's compensation packages, said JPMorgan spokesman Joe Evangelisti, who declined to give details on his bank's top earners. Buffett didn't respond to a request for comment e-mailed to an assistant.
Nerney's compensation declined 11 percent from 2010, while Nicely's rose 7.7 percent and Jain's advanced 6.1 percent at National Indemnity. Underwriting profit at Geico, which Nicely has led for 18 years, fell 48 percent to $576 million last year, while revenue rose 7.6 percent to $15.4 billion. The 2011 underwriting loss at Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group, which Jain runs, was $714 million.
Buffett uses the premium revenue collected by insurance units to help fund the stock picks and takeovers that have made Berkshire into a $200 billion provider of energy, consumer goods and luxury flights. Jain, 60, has "added a great many billions of dollars" to Berkshire's value since starting his operation in 1985, Buffett said in this year's annual letter.
Nerney's unit, with a staff of 591, is part of Berkshire Hathaway Primary Group, a collection of carriers that cover risks from medical malpractice to boating accidents. Nerney, whose unit is based in Wayne, Pennsylvania, writes so-called excess and surplus policies, which typically cover risks that aren't addressed in the traditional insurance market.
"It sounds very easy to do, but I assure you it's not," Joseph Calandro, managing director at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in New York, said in an interview. "A good excess and surplus lines underwriter is as rare as a good investor and generally just as profitable." Calandro previously worked at an excess and surplus subsidiary of Berkshire's General Re.
Buffett's Own Compensation
Buffett has taken a $100,000 salary for more than a quarter century, while accepting additional compensation from Berkshire in the form of security services valued at about $350,000 in 2010. His chief financial officer, Marc Hamburg, was the top earning executive officer at the parent company in 2010 with compensation of $924,750. JPMorgan CFO Douglas Braunstein was awarded $16.1 million in 2010, while the investment banking chief, Jes Staley, had $13.6 million, an SEC filing shows.
Buffett has praised Dimon's leadership and said he is a shareholder of New York-based JPMorgan. Berkshire holds more than $12 billion of stock in JPMorgan's rival Wells Fargo & Co., and Buffett's company made a $5 billion investment in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. at the depths of the 2008 crisis. Goldman Sachs reported about $14 million in 2010 compensation for both CEO Lloyd Blankfein and Gary Cohn, the chief operating officer, down from more than $40 million for each for 2008.
Buffett, a supporter of President Barack Obama, has called for a "policeman" to oversee banking conduct and challenged Republicans in Congress to address the widening gap between the "ultra rich" and other Americans.
"There are lot of people who would like nothing better than to take Warren down a peg or two on this particular issue," Jay Lorsch, a corporate-governance professor at Harvard Business School in Boston, said in an interview. "Here's the poster child, the guy who is arguing for parity in pay and reducing executive pay."