How is A&M perceived in the industry?

I think their pay is v high right? No cap on bonus.

If you don't get into MBB/dont choose to go to MBB, is A&M a solid option? What about exit opps? Thank you for the inputs.

 

1) Yes, you are correct on pay/bonus

2) Depending on what you want to do. They are best-in-class for restructuring/turnaround work and this an area where MBB doesn't play that much. Their second strong area is private equity work. In my opinion A&M is a very sold option, will allow you to develop both strong financial and operational skills.

3) Exit opps I have seen - midcap PEs (not necessarily distressed) and senior executive roles in the industry.

 

Hi FTI guy here, I can give a little input.

Just to add a little bit to Johnny Foreigner.

1) A&M is a very solid shop, they have the arguably the strongest company/debtor side Restructuring practice of the big 3 RX firms. (A&M, Alix, FTI) Especially when it come to large/prime deals.

2) Pay/bonus is best in the industry. You are paid a % of your billable hours.

Example below:

Rate of 25% Salary of $100k Billable hours: $1M

Your rate is 25% x $1M = $250k. Subtract $100k for your salary and your annual bonus is $150k for total comp of $250k. Very transparent and completely uncapped as far as I know. Your “commission” rate varies depending on your level and possibly performance.

On a mega-bankruptcy case you might bill $2M+ as a mid-career non-partner with a rate closer to 35-40%. So you can see how in theory this structure could be very lucrative.

3) Exits are in-line with Johnny Foreigner’s comments. Generally though due to the specialized skill set and great pay, it’s not uncommon to see people spend many years in RX consulting, even if they are not at the Partner/SMD level. .

 
Best Response

A&M guy here. Did IB out of T20 MBA then got tired of the hours. At A&M I work half the hours and make the same money. The work is much more rewarding. As far as comp its relatively similar to IB at the same age/rank. Associate is very similar to the above. Sr. Associate is like a 3rd year or low VP. Director is similar to VP and SD/MD is similar to IB, in terms of comp. MDs in IB prob make more but not a ton. Exits are as described above. I just had a mentor SD leave to found a 500m 1st round fund and asked me to go. So, that is definitely a option. I make way more than I would in MBB. 1st year out of MBA they pull 180, I will likely hit 270-300. Not even close. I also would argue I do way more intriguing work. I am in back room deals with PE/IB/Sr. Mgt all the time. I will also say at least in our office it is a pretty pure meritocracy. Do well you get a big leash and will be promoted quickly. I will likely be a Sr. Associate this year after 2 years at Associate. I have a buddy that is a sr. associate that is gonna clear 500 this year. DM me if you want more info. I am on the recruiting team here so I can give insight on that side for future readers.

 

Very curious about the recruiting side, will DM you!

Just had my trade dispute rejected by Schwab for a loss of 35k. This single issue alone should be a gigantic red flag to anyone who trades on their platform. If they have a system error, and you do not video record your trading (they actually said this), they will not honour their fuck up. Switching everything away from them. Fuck this company.
 

Just wanted to comment that FTI comp is generally lower than the numbers above for restructuring. The way comp is structured at FTI it is still very variable but the ranges are much tighter than A&M, where a relatively junior person can hit crazy numbers like the $500k mentioned above.

Rule of thumb with FTI would be that comp is lower at junior levels and becomes progressively more competitive as you get closer to SMD.

 
illbetheresoon:
A&M guy here. Did IB out of T20 MBA then got tired of the hours. At A&M I work half the hours and make the some money. The work is much more rewarding. As far as comp its relatively similar to IB at the same age/rank. Associate is very similar to the above. Sr. Associate is like a 3rd year or low VP. Director is similar to VP and SD/MD is similar to IB, in terms of comp. MDs in IB prob make more but not a ton. Exits are as described above. I just had a mentor SD leave to found a 500m 1st round fund and asked me to go. So, that is definitely a option. I make way more than I would in MBB. 1st year out of MBA they pull 180, I will likely hit 270-300. Not even close. I also would argue I do way more intriguing work. I am in back room deals with PE/IB/Sr. Mgt all the time. I will also say at least in the our office it is a pretty pure meritocracy. Do well you get a big leash and will be promoted quickly. I will likely be a Sr. Associate this year after 2 years at Associate. I have a buddy that is a sr. associate that is gonna clear 500 this year. DM me if you want more info. I am on the recruiting team here so I can give insight on that side for future readers.

As someone considering IB post MBA, did not know consulting was even exit option. Thanks for this info.

Could you please give some more details into your transition out of post MBA banking?

 

I would say it isn't the easiest jump from IB. I had talked to the team that recruited on campus and then they recruited me after I went to IB, 1 year. Going IB and then jumping over after a year might work but the farther you go up the harder that jump will be. Trying to jump over as a 3rd year associate or a 1st year VP at a lateral would be really hard. Associate in IB you have no real client facing roll and no restructuring experience. You would probably be taking a step back in level. Its also a really hard thing to get in to. There are not many spots and not many spots come open often. If you are thinking about riding the market to the top and then jumping over when it starts crashing... so is everyone else.

 

Not the OP but what is intriguing (for some) about RX Consulting versus Banking is the amount of exposure you get to the whole RX process. Whereas in banking you're focusing mainly on the capital structure, in RX consulting, you're going to get exposure to the capital structure stuff as well as boat loads of the operational and legal stuff.

As a RX consultant, you're going to be working with the company building their business plan, working with the lawyers on the various motions, creating 13 week forecasts, preparing various court-required filings, etc. This all requires in-depth knowledge of the company's operations as well as frequent interaction with C-suite level employees. And you get all that at relatively junior levels which as others have alluded to isn't as common in banking.

I will say this that in RX consulting your experience will strongly depend on the firm you join and the projects you get staffed on. Part of A&M's model is that they separate the more administrative aspects from the strategic / interesting (for me) aspects. I think Alix is similiar. At FTI, on the company side, this work is not separated so you run the risk of getting staffed on engagements where you're focused on first day motions, preparing SOFA/SOAL, doing claims reconciliation, etc. and not necessarily getting a ton of exposure to the modeling side of things. Something to keep in mind. Also, I think this is less of an issue on lender side work for obvious reasons.

We get the world we deserve.
 

The work is really intriguing because of what Velcoro said above. You are not as siloed as you can be at some places. You end up doing business plans, valuation, dip financing, cash flow, treasury, RIFs, touch a lot of law, ect... I find the building a plan and executing it very valuable too. A lot of other services firms go in and find a problem and build a plan but never execute that plan.

I also agree with Velcoro that the firm can have a big impact on your work. We definitely separate the admin aspects from the strategic/operational aspects of RX. You get to be a part of claims, motions, ectt.. but that is not your primary role.

 

what role exactly is this at A&M? Notice in UK they have Private Equity Performance Improvement, Financial Advisory and RX. Would there be specific roles in relation to the lucrative figures you are referencing, or are there certain areas of practice that are remunerated better than others? Recruiter mentioned A&M TAS and unsure as to the strength of this group, internally + perception externally (London).

 
Extrapreneur:
what role exactly is this at A&M? Notice in UK they have Private Equity Performance Improvement, Financial Advisory and RX. Would there be specific roles in relation to the lucrative figures you are referencing, or are there certain areas of practice that are remunerated better than others? Recruiter mentioned A&M TAS and unsure as to the strength of this group, internally + perception externally (London).

Bump. Anyone know the best way to position for PEPI group? Is this made up of consultants or more TS/FDD guys?

 

Usually fly out Monday return Thursday. Work life balance is good I think. Can get rough but when you are working a ton you are making a ton. If I could work 3000 hours in a year I would. That would never happen though. Culture is literally the best thing here. No A-Hole policy and it is taken very seriously. Benefits are ok, no 401k match though... But I'd rather make more than other people than get a tiny 401k match.

 

TAG absolutely does NOT have the same comp model - significantly lower bonuses. Even though this service line also serves PE clients it has a completely different business model than PEPI.

TAG is the FDD team, equivalent of Transaction Services teams at Big 4. Highly commoditised business with many competitors and much lower rates. Comp model is not based directly on billable hours. Base is slightly lower than PEPI & Restructuring and bonuses are nowhere near the same.

PEPI operates on much higher rates leading to a very different comp model.

 

I'm entertaining an offer from a boutique firm similar to A&M, FTI, Alix and can't seem to find much on the industry / space beside this particular post and a few others on WSO.

I received what seems like a relatively onerous non-compete and some other red flags that I was wondering if anyone had comments on -

Non-Compete: Cannot work for a competitor or any bank / PE shop / client I have been on / "firm" for 2 years and cannot solicit business from them if this shop has had them as a client or has pitched business to them even if they didn't win the client.

Salary: They came out of the gates (head-hunter did) with a salary and made it sound like this was no problem - even asked what my "make this a no-brainer" # was (obviously higher) - then after the third interview I got a call from the MD and was told that it was too high and blah blah and the recruiter came back and gave me a revised range. When the official offer came, the offer was 15% below the original and at the bottom of the revised range. (Though still a good #).

Bonus: From reading this thread and talking to industry sources it sounds like it's standard practice that you can back into your bonus numbers with relative ease as you now your hourly rate, your % you keep and how many hours you billed. I was told that yes this is how it's done at this shop, but there are other factors that are considered so you cannot count on that working...

Any thoughts on all this - all seems like a big red flag to be, but maybe I'm trying to convince myself that I should just take it regardless as the salary is good and it sounds like bonus potential it there, just maybe not as transparent and the likelihood of them trying to enforce the non-compete seems far fetched?????

 

Has anyone heard of Getzler & Henrich, a middle market restructuring firm? What's the pay like and what's the firm's reputation in the industry? It seems like they have long history in the industry, founded even earlier than big three.

 

A&M guy here. As described above A&M has a comp "model" that is highly transparent and formulaic. Not all service lines use this bonus model, but Restructuring and PEPI do. Your bonus is your total comp less your base salary. As described above, for example if you bill $400/hr * 2,000 hours in the year = $800,000 billed * 28% = $224,000 total comp. Subtract for example $100k base and your bonus is $124k. Critically the bonus is on collections, not billing. This aligns with how much A&M stresses the importance of cash (typical for restructuring). If the client has not paid yet then your collections will be pushed into the bonus for the next year.

For Associates the comp range is 25-30% of your total collections for the year. Where you fall in that range is based on your performance rating. For Senior Associates it varies, but seems to be 30-35%. At higher levels it can be even higher (~40%). Analysts are not on the model and are paid a bonus based on performance reviews. Traditionally A&M hires senior people anyway (especially RX and PE service lines) but we're starting to hire more juniors.

 

Looking to work for A&M out of UG and I've been told by multiple analysts that their bonus model is the exact same as associates, just different percentage for the performance rating. I.e., they'll do something like the $400 * 2000 billable hours * 20-25% (based on performance rating). Is this not true? I was just confused since you mentioned analysts are not on the model but everyone I spoke to said total comp for analysts (year 1) was like $140k-$180k.. speaking for something like the NY office.

Could you elaborate please?

 

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Persistency is Key
 

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