"They've had a history of paying their top five like partners," Orens said. "It's unusual, but it really comes from their partnership mentality."

The firm disclosed in January that Blankfein's salary will increase to $2 million in 2011 and that Cohn, Viniar, Evans and Weinberg will each receive a $1.85 million salary starting this year. Each of them had received a $600,000 salary since 1999, the year the firm became a public company.

Blankfein and eight deputies reaped a total of $125 million during 2010 from their investments in private equity and hedge funds managed by the firm, the proxy disclosed. Blankfein's payments, which included profits and any return of capital, totaled $27.2 million, outstripping his compensation.

After Blankfein, the largest fund distributions were $23.3 million to General Counsel Gregory K. Palm; $20.2 million to Cohn; $16.7 million to Viniar; and $13.7 million to Evans. The others disclosed in the filing were $10.9 million to Vice Chairman Michael S. Sherwood; $6.4 million apiece to Weinberg and General Counsel Esta E. Stecher, and $430,000 to Alan M. Cohen, global head of compliance.

Goldman Sachs's executives stand to earn more cash bonuses in future years under a long-term incentive plan, the LTIP, disclosed in the proxy. The payments are contingent on two financial measures: return on equity and book value per share.

Board's Choice

The initial measurement period is three years and the board can extend it through the end of 2018. The notional value of the award for all five executives named in the proxy was $7 million, a figure that wasn't included in the 2010 compensation because it won't be delivered for three years.

For the executives to receive the awards in full, return on equity, or ROE, must average 10% and book value per share must rise an average of 7%, the proxy shows. They will receive 150% of the bonus if the average ROE is 15% or more and book value per share climbs an average of 12% or more. The ROE target is below the firm's long-stated goal of achieving 20% return on tangible equity, which equates to more than 15% ROE, over the economic cycle.

Eleanor Bloxham, president of the Corporate Governance Alliance in Columbus, Ohio, said Goldman Sachs seemed to be responding to regulators' efforts to align pay to the firm's longer-term performance.

'Paying out Cash'

"Going forward I'm pleased that the LTIP cash will include these deferral mechanisms so that it doesn't encourage risk- taking and that risk measures look at longer-term horizons," she said. "There's still a way to go in this year's plan because they're paying out cash."

To be sure, all of the executives own company stock worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Blankfein owned 3.29 million shares as of March 7, the proxy disclosed, worth $527.6 million at the $160.23 share price on April 1. Cohn's 1.96 million shares were worth $313.4 million and Viniar's 1.89 million shares were worth $302.4 million.