Institutional Investor's Alpha has released its 12th annual rich list, which ranks the top-earning hedge fund managers for the year.

According to Institutional Investor's Alpha's analysis, the 25 highest earning hedge fund managers brought in a combined $14.14 billion in 2012. That's the lowest total since 2008.

Fund managers are paid through a compensation structure commonly known as the "2 and 20", which stands for a 2% management fee and a 20% performance fee charge. Those numbers can, however, vary from fund to fund. More specifically, two and twenty means hedge fund manager would charge 2% of total assets under management and 20% of any profits.

The fund managers also likely have their own capital invested in their funds so that would have to be taken into consideration when calculating their take home pay.

David Tepper, the founder of $12 billion-distressed-debt hedge fund Appaloosa Management, made it to the top of the list. There were four fund managers whose take-home pay was over a billion.