(Bloomberg) — American International Group Inc.'s new chiefexecutive officer can expect to deal with a volatile industry,pressure from ratings firms and a restless board. And if the pastis any guide, the new leader won't get an industry-leadingcompensation package for the trouble.

Peter Hancock, who is staying on until a successor is found, hadreported compensation of $12.5 million in 2015, among the lowestfor CEOs at industry peers. Dan Glaser, the head of broker Marsh & McLennanCos. who is seen as a potential replacement at AIG, got $15.6million. Mike McGavick received $12.7 million from XL Group Ltd.and told staff there that he isn't interested in the AIG job.

Related: AIG posts Q4 $3.04 billion loss — burned byclaim costs

“I doubt you would be able to attract AIG's next CEO from analready-top-performing property-and-casualty insurer or insurancebroker,” Jay Gelb, an analyst at Barclays Plc, wrote in a March 15note. “Why would they give up their current role and deal with aturnaround situation?”

Hancock will be the sixth CEO to leave New York-based AIG since2005. Much of their efforts in that span have involved resolvingregulatory probes and lawsuits, negotiating federal bailouts andselling assets — the sort of roles that aren't usuallyassociated with big pay raises. It didn't help Hancock that thecompany has been unprofitable in four of the last six quarters.

The new leader will need to restore credibility to a companythat missed profit targets and has been draining talent for a decade. JohnHeagerty, an analyst at Atlantic Equities, said the job may eveninvolve breaking up the company, a plan previously advocated by activist investor CarlIcahn.

Given the difficulty of the role, and the limited number ofexecutives with the relevant experience, AIG should be prepared topay top dollar, the analyst wrote in a March 15 note, saying thecompany's best choices might be Glaser and John Keogh, the chiefoperating officer at Chubb Ltd. Both are former AIG executives.

'Incredibly demanding'

“The job is incredibly demanding and possibly the mostcomplicated within the property-and-casualty industry,” given thecompany's global reach, diversity of operation and recent historyof losses after determining repeatedly that reserves wereinadequate, Heagerty said in a note to investors last week. “With ahigh level of expectation for any incoming CEO, there is a questionas to whether any new CEO could truly succeed. As such, any new CEOis likely to command a substantial remuneration package.”

A spokesman for Glaser at Marsh & McLennan declined tocomment, as did a spokesman at Chubb, whichpaid Keogh about $7.5 million in 2015.

Hancock was promoted to CEO in 2014, and his annual incentive was slashed by 29 percentthe following year for missing profitability goals. Results in 2016were hurt by a fourth-quarter charge of $5.6 billion to fill areserve shortfall for swelling costs on policies written in prioryears, some before Hancock even joined the company. The insurer wasdowngraded by S&P Global Ratings in January and is under reviewat A.M. Best, an industry ratings firm.

'Function of performance'

“It's simply a function of performance,” Meyer Shields, ananalyst at Keefe, Bruyette &Woods, said about the CEO's pay relative to peers. “Mostcompanies can put up returns on equity bordering 10 percent, 9percent. But AIG obviously has not done that.” The company hasn'tyet filed its proxy statement with complete details of Hancock's2016 compensation.

Under Hancock, AIG outperformed the S&P 500 Index untilactivist Icahn began agitating for changes in October 2015. The CEOresisted the billionaire's demand to break AIG into three separatecompanies, opting instead to cut jobs to boost returns and sellunits to generate funds for share buybacks.

Icahn's firm won board representation, and heeven publicly praised Hancock for a while. But the board becamefrustrated as claims costs escalated, the CEO lowered profitabilitytargets and the stock missed out on the 2017 rally in financialfirms. Icahn supported the exit of Hancock when he announced hisplan on March 9 to depart. Icahn's firm didn't respond to a messageseeking comment on the CEO search. AIG declined to comment.

Related: AIG to pay Berkshire $9.8 billion in insurancetransfer deal

For all the pressure of running AIG, the role was “the moststimulating job in America,” Ed Liddy said in 2009, when heannounced that he would depart as CEO. After all, the post offersthe chance to help some of the world's largest companies managerisks from cyber-hacking to earthquakes.

And whoever steps in will have two advantages that Liddy didn't,when he was appointed in 2008. The company is no longer owned bytaxpayers, and the salary will be more than the $1 a year thatLiddy was paid.

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