Associate promotion and leave within 2 months

Say you get promoted to associate, you accept that offer and with it the signing bonus that is separate from your year-end bonus. If you leave within a month or two, will the bank come after you for that signing bonus? Or have people successfully accepted and left?

Don't want to decline the promo and then get gypped on my year-end bonus if they know I am leaving (only reason you would decline promo) but have heard that the signing bonus comes with a clawback for a year. Any insight helpful, thanks! 

**This is for a product group in which private equity exits are not common and you do not socialize if you are leaving until you submit your resignation. Not a coverage group**

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Can't comment on % of firms that claw back promotion bonuses, but why would you ever turn down a promotion? Bonus figures are meant to 1) validate your performance for the past year, but also 2) to ensure you remain motivated to maintain / exceed prior years' expectations. There is zero incentive for a firm to pay you an attractive year-end bonus if you make it clear you're leaving within months of the money hitting your bank account. #1 focus for most businesses (particularly banks) are dollars and cents, and it would be naïve to assume that firms would take the moral high-ground and pay you what you "ought to be paid". 

Take the promo, get paid, and leave when you have an offer in hand. Whether or not firms try to claw back the promo bonus is something to worry about after all is said and done. Easiest way to manage the uncertainty is to not spend the promo bonus until you have further clarity. Loyalty isn't reciprocated in this industry.

 

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