Incoming American International Group CEO Peter Hancockindicated yesterday as he took the helm that he is confidentlongtime AIG executives will decide to remain with the company.

Jay Gelb, a managing director and property and casualty analystfor Barclays Capital, asked Hancock if he's “received commitmentfrom other leadership of AIG to remain at the company?”

“As far as the commitment of the senior leadership of thecompany, I think we've all been through a lot together over thelast five years,” Hancock said. He added, “I'm very hopeful thateverybody who went through the challenges over the last five yearslooks forward to the next five years with as much enthusiasm as Ido.”

The question was asked against the background of the AIG board'sdecision to appoint Hancock instead of Jay Wintrob as CEO. Hancockand Wintrob were the finalists for the CEO job to replaceBenmosche, the AIG board acknowledged some time ago.

Wintrob has been with AIG's life unit since 2001. He headedSunAmerica, which was acquired at that time by AIG.

But, he has headed AIG's life business as CEO and president ofAIG Life & Retirement at American International Group, Inc.since 2009, at a time when the company was controlled by the U.S.government.

And, as noted by retiring CEO Robert Benmosche during the AIGconference call today, “Life and Retirement continues its excellentrun, as we're becoming a stronger and stronger competitor in thatspace.”

Hancock joined the company in 2010 as chief risk officer at acompany controlled by the government, specifically the FederalReserve, from J.P. Morgan. He worked at J.P. Morgan for 20 years,establishing its derivatives group before becoming CFO. Hancock waspromoted to the property and casualty post in 2011 after joining ayear earlier to manage the credit-default swaps unit, AIG FinancialProducts, whose activities forced the company to seek a governmentbailout.

Hancock did not respond directly to the question of whetherretaining control of the P&C unit directly will be “a temporarysituation or perhaps permanent,” as asked by Gelb.

Gelb asked, “Given the size of AIG, it feels like that's apretty big load for one person to carry, running morethan—essentially being CEO, plus being responsible for the largestsingle unit of the company?”

Hancock responded by saying that, “increasingly John Q. Doyle,[CEO of global commercial insurance], and Kevin Hogan, [CEO of CEOof global consumer insurance] have assumed the broader strategicleadership that those two very large segments deserve.”

And, Hancock said that AIG is “very focused on making the wholecompany more flatter in the hierarchy,” and is therefore,minimizing the layers of management between the CEO and thetrenches “to improve our responsiveness to the customers andmarkets.”

AIG securities filings to the SEC indicate that Hancock will geta compensation package of $11.8 million a year as the insurer's newCEO.