NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Bermuda-based Lazard Ltd., the biggest non-bank merger adviser, gave chief executive officer Kenneth Jacobs $7.5 million in total compensation for 2009 as he took the helm after Bruce Wasserstein died in October.

Jacobs, 51, got $1.43 million in base salary and $6.07 million in incentive compensation, the company said yesterday in a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The incentive compensation was split between a $2.32 million cash bonus and $3.75 million in restricted stock.

Lazard last month reported 2009 compensation costs, excluding special charges, that were up 25 percent from a year earlier as it increased the current-cash and deferred-equity components in pay packages. The compensation climbed to 71.8 percent of revenue, excluding one-time charges, compared with 56 percent in 2007 and 2008.