If you could work for any of the top equity LO AMs, which would it be?

Benefits of each

* D&C - strong "team" decision dynamic, very much a partnership / collective decision making feel

* Capital - able to run your own sleeve and be more independent by shopping your ideas around to PMs, bigger

* T Rowe - seemed very academic and deeply value focused

* Fido - not sure

* Welly - not sure

Which would you pick? Which are the "top" of the top tier?

42 Comments
 

Noticed that no one has mentioned BLK. Is it below all these, possibly because it focuses more on passive products and ETFs?

 

So how are BLK's active funds and products viewed within the industry, both from a returns and a careers perspective?

 
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Talked with all but Wellington about post-MBA roles recently, so can give my 2 cents. At this level most people are planning to build a long career at whichever firm they join, so top pick(s) are sometimes just driven by location. Wellington sounded the most attractive to me based on the limited info I heard (combo of culture, private partnership / comp upside, AUM, etc.) but that may be because I dug into Wellington the least since they didn't come to campus & had no formal recruitment this year. So I'll put Wellington the side.

West Coast:

  • Capital: Generally viewed as the best-in-class large LO firm (with Wellington). Level of autonomy / responsibility out of the gate is highest, LA is great for most, AUM/head is strong, and private partnership means LT comp upside is fantastic. Only people I've seen not put Capital as #1 this year are those who don't feel ready to manage a lot of money out of the gate or strong east coast preference. 
  • D&C: Incredible reputation / firm but lower on my list personally. AUM/head is #1 so LT economics must be great. Would be top of list for those looking for benefits of firm scale combined with small team culture/feel if there is a culture match. PE folks sometimes want to avoid the committee structure you mention, and SF is hit or miss as a LT home.

East Coast:

  • T Rowe vs. Fidelity largely comes down to culture vs. location in my opinion. Fidelity was my least favorite culture out of these 4, while T Rowe was on the high-end for culture. Boston > Baltimore though. How you weigh those is up to the individual. Wellington seems to be best of both worlds, so I'm not surprised many have highlighted it as their clear #1.
 

Talked with all but Wellington about post-MBA roles recently, so can give my 2 cents. At this level most people are planning to build a long career at whichever firm they join, so top pick(s) are sometimes just driven by location. Wellington sounded the most attractive to me based on the limited info I heard (combo of culture, private partnership / comp upside, AUM, etc.) but that may be because I dug into Wellington the least since they didn't come to campus & had no formal recruitment this year. So I'll put Wellington the side.

West Coast:

  • Capital: Generally viewed as the best-in-class large LO firm (with Wellington). Level of autonomy / responsibility out of the gate is highest, LA is great for most, AUM/head is strong, and private partnership means LT comp upside is fantastic. Only people I've seen not put Capital as #1 this year are those who don't feel ready to manage a lot of money out of the gate or strong east coast preference. 
  • D&C: Incredible reputation / firm but lower on my list personally. AUM/head is #1 so LT economics must be great. Would be top of list for those looking for benefits of firm scale combined with small team culture/feel if there is a culture match. PE folks sometimes want to avoid the committee structure you mention, and SF is hit or miss as a LT home.

East Coast:

  • T Rowe vs. Fidelity largely comes down to culture vs. location in my opinion. Fidelity was my least favorite culture out of these 4, while T Rowe was on the high-end for culture. Boston > Baltimore though. How you weigh those is up to the individual. Wellington seems to be best of both worlds, so I'm not surprised many have highlighted it as their clear #1.

Do you know the comp trajectory? Curious how it compares to other post-MBA buyside roles. 

 

A major factor that often gets overlooked when making comparisons of the mega LOs is ownership structure. Which has a MATERIAL impact on long-term comp, particularly in the second half of the career. One shouldn’t stop at AUM or AUM / investment professional.
 

For instance: Capital and D&C are privately held by the employees - effectively private partnerships. Fidelity is too, but half owned by the Johnson family. T. Rowe is publicly held. Wellington is privately held but I don’t know the particulars of their ownership and if they have an established succession process - if anyone knows and can shed some light. 

 

Believe the Johnson family still owns 51% of Fido with employees holding the other 49%. My understanding is comp at mid-/senior-level is heavily skewed towards shares that pay out over a few years, which means that you are leaving a lot of $ on the table by leaving. Would imagine the other privately held mega-LOs have a similar comp structure (designed to help retention)

 

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