Analyst Incentive Structures

A lot of posts on this site about $ pay levels, but not much about actual incentive structures (i.e. I'm more interested in how one gets paid vs what one gets paid for the purpose of this post). Curious what people have experienced over time? What did you like, what did you not like? What do you think would work and/or incent the right type of analyst behavior? I can tell you at my old firm, there was very little direct tie to personal contribution to the portfolio, and it was over-weighted to the aggregate, which I found very demotivating. Ex: I covered a smaller sector and like 40% of my outcome was dependent on our tech/com services analyst by definition. Curious what others have experienced and what has worked for them, paper portfolios, recommended lists, buy/sell/hold rating performance, # of names in the book, number of ideas generated in a given year, etc. What do you guys think works the best? What is the worst? 

8 Comments
 

I believe the bonus is calculated chiefly on a discretionary basis in most LOs. An investment arm for an insurance company would pay 25-50%, a small shop would pay 50-100%, and a benchmark hugging large managers would pay 100+%, but it is rarely based on a formula that delicately takes your individual performance into account. I'd be happy to learn if there are shops that do things differently.

 

Without being too specific:

Structure A: 60% target, 120% max.

80% quantitative/20% discretionary. Quantitative = 50% more direct portfolio; 50% broader definition portfolio (more of a composite). 1Y/Rolling 3Y formula 

Structure B: 125% target, 250% max

50/50 quant vs discretionary. Quant = combination of things at various weightings. 3Y rolling 

 

Should add that the quant vs discretionary mix of structure B is inconsistent with my comment "quantitative component has been larger in both instances". There are some quantitative measures within the qualitative piece that are not straight up performance vs a bench like # of ideas in a given year etc. that help drive the qual. The weightings of such measures are just not explicitly defined and as such they don't fall into the quantitative piece 

 

Ut sed odit id debitis. Minima odit excepturi velit tenetur. Voluptas quo tempora excepturi omnis et officiis. In blanditiis id aspernatur rerum eveniet.

Quam nobis exercitationem voluptatem dicta cum tempore. Consequatur ipsa rerum non sint impedit dolor ad. Quia pariatur odit autem autem rerum ipsam blanditiis.

Hic est dicta odio velit ipsa accusantium omnis. Et veritatis tempora dolorem tenetur ab cumque quibusdam.

Quae voluptatem nemo voluptas sed rerum est aliquid tempora. Quibusdam sunt ipsa numquam provident sit rerum. Voluptatem non eius consequatur animi quisquam voluptas praesentium repudiandae.

Career Advancement Opportunities

May 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.2%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

May 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.6%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

May 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.2%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

May 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (43) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (75) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (65) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
6
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
7
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
8
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”