When he ran the Jefferies Group, Richard B. Handler was one of the better paid chief executives on Wall Street. Now, after the Leucadia National Corporation acquired Jefferies, his compensation has fallen by more than 80 percent.
Mr. Handler, who became chief executive of Leucadia after the merger last year, earned $3.1 million in 2013, according to a regulatory filing on Wednesday. The previous year, his compensation totaled $19 million, higher than that of Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase.
A primary driver of the lower pay was the disappointing performance of the Jefferies subsidiary, where Mr. Handler is still chief executive.
The performance of Jefferies fell short of a predetermined target but above a minimum threshold, producing a bonus for Mr. Handler of $1.8 million, the filing showed. If Jefferies had done better, Mr. Handler might have received up to $12 million.
As in past years, Mr. Handler took a base salary of $1 million for 2013. The rest of his compensation included items like a driver and the personal use of company aircraft.
Leucadia, a company that is sometimes called a “baby Berkshire Hathaway” for the wide range of its holdings, experienced a corporate transformation after buying Jefferies for $3.6 billion. For one thing, the founders stopped sending out their annual letter to shareholders, which, like the dispatches from Warren E. Buffett of Berkshire, had a wide readership.
The company’s founders, Ian M. Cumming and Joseph S. Steinberg, stepped down from their management roles after the merger, with Mr. Steinberg staying on as chairman. The number of directors also increased to 11 from eight, including the addition of nine new directors.
When he was chief executive in 2012, Mr. Cumming was paid $29.1 million, the filing showed.