ROME, N.Y.–The nearly $8-million paid to the CEO of one credit union here during 2017 has received local media coverage.
Syracuse.com, which is published along with Post-Standard as part of Advance Media New York, topped its website’s coverage with the $7.97 million paid in compensation during 2017 to Mark Pfisterer, CEO of the $1.7-billion AmeriiCU Credit Union.
“That’s the sort of jumbo pay the federal government is starting to penalize at nonprofit organizations, including credit unions,” stated the publication.
According to the report, Pfisterer’s compensation soared in 2017 because he received millions in deferred retirement benefits along with his regular salary. Pfisterer, 68, is to retire in 2020 after 41 years at credit union, which has approximately 136,000 members.
“His paycheck jumped tenfold in 2017. Before that, Pfisterer took home no more than $790,000 a year, according to AmeriCU reports to the IRS,” Syracuse.com stated. “But since 2012 he also has been racking up deferred compensation totaling millions, much of which he got in a lump sum in 2017. Including regular and deferred pay, Pfisterer earned about $14 million over the past seven years, or an average of $2 million per year.”
Syracuse.com noted that as part of its efforts to discourage tax-exempt groups from paying that much, Congress created a financial penalty in 2017. Nonprofits must pay a 21% tax on any employee’s total compensation that exceeds $1 million a year.
“The change took effect in 2018. Pfisterer’s $8 million windfall made it just under the wire,” the report stated.
‘Decades of Fruitful Service’
AmeriCU officials told the publication Pfisterer is being rewarded in the final years of his career for “decades of fruitful service during which the credit union has prospered.” Over Pfisterer’s 20 years as CEO the credit union has grown to its current $1.7-billion in assets from $300 million.
“You look at the total package over 41 years, and we had a great value for a lot of years,’’ Chairman John Stevenson told the publication, adding that Pfisterer’s salary is comparable to what CEOs make at similarly sized credit unions.
The compensation figures were originally reported by Keith Leggett on his Credit Union Watch blog. Leggett is a former executive with the American Bankers Association.