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
 

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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