HF Comp Policies: Deferrals, Clawbacks, Draw Clauses

From what I’ve seen:

1) Deferrals: I’ve seen 2-6ish years on the deferrals for senior comp. Some firms strictly defer, some invest in fund (with vesting schedule), others (partners) have equity (usually with vesting schedule). It can be a very high %, but keep in mind we are talking about high numbers

2) payouts: what I’ve seen is annual, haven’t really seen anything different

3) clawbacks: haven’t seen any clawback on comp (outside of clawback on bonuses for resigning). I have seen the deferral being vested as equity which means if the fund loses money, you lose money (relative to the value at the time it was issued) 

4) resigning: you lose out on whatever wasn’t guaranteed. Resign before your bonus? No bonus. Resign before vesting? No vesting. Pretty straightforward 

Deferrals can be two types imho

1) golden handcuffs to retain talent

2) a smoothing function for netting risk (primarily but not necessarily exclusively at non-pass through funds). This would be the clawback style. 
 

Each has its merits for the GP And drawbacks for the employees. Candidly, I prefer style 2. I’ll take betting risk to myself across years. But creating handcuffs through comp when the PNL is earned and invective fees are paid seems disingenuous to me.