RX Consulting Rankings / Tier List
There's already hundreds for mgmt consulting & IB so thought of making one for restructuring consulting. Just know that this is a pretty inexact science given how hush-hush the industry is, and how many new firms pop up each year, but hopefully this it at least directionally accurate. After tier 1, didn't bother splitting into a, b and c since that'd be too inexact and subjective. Also, this isn't reflective of comp, it's entirely possible for a tier 5 firm to pay more than a tier 3 firm or something. Appreciate any insights.
Tier 1a: Alvarez & Marsal
Tier 1b: AlixPartners
Tier 1c: FTI Consulting
Tier 2: BRG, Ankura, Province
Tier 3: M3, Portage Point, Teneo
Tier 4: Huron, MERU, Riveron, Accordion, DS
Tier 5: Dundon, SOLIC, GlassRatner, CR3, Paladin
Tier 6: Force Ten, Getzler Henrich, SierraConstellation
Tier 7: The other firms...(around 8-10 firms)
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Non rx-consulting (Tier 8+): Big 4 RX Groups
Accurate but would move SOLIC up a tier
I’d move M3 and Portage up to Tier 2. M3 is a bit more of a boutique but good team. Portage is becoming a mini A&M and has attracted some strong talent.
I'd actually argue they're good where they are for now. We actually keep screens on a fair few RX consulting firms and their mandates, and the problem with most of the firms below the tier 2 that OP has, are that they're inconsistent. They could have an amazing year and then one not so amazing year. BRG, Province, and even Ankura have much more consistency + scale. There's also the recruiting angle, our firm would much rather take a BRG or province person over someone from M3 or Portage. Good shops, but there's a divide between them and the ones "above"
Agreed. The T2s typically win pretty notable names (less so than the T1s of course, but there’s a sizable gap between T2 & T3). Province wins even bigger names, but that’s mostly in their UCC practice.
I'd say this is pretty accurate
Could anyone provide some visibility into the compensation structure at the analyst and associate levels for Tier 1 and Tier 2 firms?
Comp at the t1 firms has been discussed quite a bit on here, you could find a couple of posts if you dig a little. Tldr though, A&M pays insanely well, better than virtually all firms in high finance aside from like quant / HF or some similar thing assuming you get staffed, Alix is lower but still very good, FTI is “below street”. PPP pays very well as well, they publish their comp on their career openings I believe, and I know of a couple of Directors there (equivalent to VP in IB) all of whom make north of $800k excluding equity etc. The rest are kind of a black box, but I think BRG is slightly higher than FTI?
Won’t get a consistent answer. I’d say average should be somewhere between MBB and IB, with some higher and some a bit lower. In terms of highest to lowest paying at entry/mid level roles, would say more like A&M>M3>Portage>Alix>Province>BRG>FTI>Ankura.The top 6 or so here are likely to use a billable hour based bonus structure.
But in terms of highest earnings potential once more senior, more like A&M>Alix>FTI>BRG and so on.
Thank you all for the input, super helpful. Clearly there is a lot of variability in bonuses depending on utilization and billing. Is it fair to think of general bonus ranges as more like 30% to 50% of base at the junior levels in RX consulting, versus IB where it is often 50% to 100%, obviously excluding outliers like A&M on the higher end?
Would agree with associate 1 and @rolo25. Generally a black hole, firms going off billable pay better than the ones that don't (not a hard and fast rule though). I anecdotally know a couple of well utilized An1s at A&M that crossed $300k, so will say that the earning potential is very high, but downside is it's a very eat what you kill model, like some multi manager hedge funds I know of.
Not even eat what you kill. Closer to scrounging for as many scraps from whatev the sr folk kill haha
Have they mentioned how they were able to get staffed that much?
Sold list.
Fun fact: One of co-heads at SOLIC is the former head of RX at Lazard terminated after only a few months in due to...off brand activities.
That is a good story, wonder if he still has that house in lake geneva and how the work flow has come in since he left lazard
For taste reasons alone, I hope he doesn't.
And curious as to how he'll do at SOLIC going forward too, but time will tell.
is there a path from mid market (BDO)/ b4 rx groups to A&M as an analyst/ intern
Sure, assuming there isn't anyone from tiers 1b-7 or anyone in RX IB / PE / HF or the like / relevant skillset that has a better value proposition or fit than you, and hasn't applied to the same application cycle, to the same location as you. Or you've got someone at A&M reeally gunning for you, but I'm not sure how much weight referrals carry there. In all honestly it's doable but hard, and the much more likely way is you work upwards in steps, going to progressively better firms. For context, for 2026 FT start positions for people that didn't intern there (external recruiting), A&M only had one opening so far in the entire country, and that was for their west coast office. I know people at my college (west coast target) that were going crazy for it. If you try to come in as a analyst, that's what you'll be up against, given you interned at a different firm for your final year, based on your comment.
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