The richest payout to a Wall Street C.E.O.? The honor this year goes to Bruce Wasserstein of Lazard, who has been granted more than $96 million in restricted stock.

Wasserstein, as profiled by Karl Taro Greenfeld in Condé Nast Portfolio, is "perhaps the most surprising survivor amid this season's Wall Street swoon."

As other Wall Street firms bet—and all but Goldman Sachs lost—the house money on investments tied to subprime mortgages, Lazard stuck to its core business of advising on mergers and other deals.

"We are not in the subprime business; we are not a public hedge fund; nor do we have S.I.V.'s or hanging bridge loans. We are not burdened with massive write-offs," Wasserstein said, according to Dow Jones.

Thanks to the advisory fees, Lazard today reported a 45 percent increase in fourth-quarter earnings.

Lazard also said it had reached a new five-year contract with Wasserstein that replaces the one due to expire in May.

Under the terms of the new five-year agreement, Mr. Wasserstein will receive a salary of $900,000 a year and has been granted 2.7 million restricted stock units that vest after five years. His previous contract called for a base salary of $4.8 million plus "incentive compensation" at year-end. This year, that bonus is $36.2 million in restricted stock.

While it's not quite a direct apples-to-apples comparison, Wasserstein's total dwarfs that of Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, which had a pretty good year too.

Blankfein received $26.8 million in cash and $41 million in stock and options this year. His base salary is $600,000.

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