Best Long-Only Asset Managers for Undergraduates

Question

Curious to hear this forum’s thoughts on the best LO shops for undergraduate-level research associates. How would you rank research associate programs at the best-known firms by criteria like compensation, career progression, culture, and WLB? In terms of asset class, I’m personally interested in equities but info on fixed income shops is more than welcome. Information on this forum is generally sparse, and what’s out there seems to be focused on analyst programs at the MBA level.

zeroebitda · Accepted Answer

This has been well covered before (See: https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/top-asset-management-firms). It's very hard to rank large AMs as their forte varies by asset class and strategies. However, here is a list that I think is largely accurate. You should expect total comp as a first-year research associate to be around 150k:

Equities:

1. Capital Group, Wellington, Fidelity, BlackRock, Dodge & Cox, T. Rowe

2. Putnam, Amundi, Franklin Templeton, MFS

Fixed-Income:

1. PIMCO (in a league of their own)

2. TCW/DoubleLine/Nuveen/BlackRock/PGIM

Tamius Wake · Answer

The perspectives here are interesting. @marketmergermaddie with the great advice as usual. I could make a deeper post on the subject but a couple high level thoughts:

1. If you are looking for a LO firm to join out of UG, look for a firm that has a long standing RA program (ideally a mix of alumni from said program who have exited the firm to other places + internal promotes). I'd be wary of firms with too much on either side of the coin (either there's no upward mobility or high turnover at upper levels resulting in higher level of people staying on).

mp11932 · Answer

Been a while since I was there but still have friends that work there

1) What are the hours like? Fairly normal, good wl balance. I would say in by 8 out by 5-6 on a normal day

2) What is the comp like? Not sure where this stands but I would say it was fair for being a suburban mutual fund company. Comp starting off for an associate was average.

3) Are they truly long-term growth investors or is more of a trading shop? Long term investors. Obviously if the narrative changes they will make changes as well.

4) What is the culture like?

mp11932 · Answer

1. You mentioned they are LT investors but why is portfolio turnover so high? Is 'name turnover' low (implying there's a lot of trimming and adding vs. a lot of outright initiating and selling)?

When market fundamentals change you need to shift the portfolio accordingly. Look at how the market cycle has played out this year and what has been the winners/losers. Given the higher tech allocations, they would need to rotate out to companies that make sense in this market

2. On the growth equities side, what is the time horizon targeted for new investments?

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Best Long-Only Asset Managers for Undergraduates

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