Recently read a thread on CVP comp and many were saying that CVP's partners make 8 figures. Can someone confirm if this is true?? Seems a bit too high. Otherwise, why wouldn't that be the goal for top talent as opposed to mf pe since it probably has significant less stress and arguably better culture than most mf pe firms.
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fortune 100 ceos make an average of $22mm a year. why doesn’t all the top talent go to corp dev instead of MFPE…. you see how ludicrous that sounds. we’re talking about the top handful of people in an entire industry not a viable path for “top talent”. there’s also less than 100 CVP partners…so arguably more difficult to get.
fair point. thanks for the insight
Corp dev isn't how you get to a CEO spot. In fact, if you only stay in corp dev, you likely won't even be able to get a CFO spot at companies of that level. This is giving very finance-bro energy, even if the point you are making is a good one.
Corp Dev is one of the better career paths to get on if you aspire to be in the C-Suite. What would you suggest is a better path?
Corp dev is the back office of back office. It is not even a core function in the finance department (which is the back office of a corporate but led by CFO)
If you want to make 22m in corporate, do sales, marketing, product. Worst case supply chain or fp&a is still better than bs corp dev.
even if that's true, which you probably know better than i do, that wasn't the point of my response. everyone is missing the point. i was saying that "top talent" doesn't EVER have a direct line to 8 figures/partner in any part of business including banking, F500 companies, PE, etc. To base what career you would like to go into on how "easy" it is to make 8 figures is ridiculous.
35% of the fees they bring in
Is this true? How does it compare to Evercore, PJT and PWP and Lazard?
35% seems high, why wouldn't partners go there
Not surprising if top 10 law firm partners make $5-30mm based on ppep metrics
The rainmakers there make 8 figures yes. But it's only a handful of partners that bring in the big deals.
Most of the partners don't come close...Make in the same range as MDs at other EBs.
I know I am clueless but how does becoming partner at a top bank like CVP work? Is it similar to a hedge fund where becoming a PM is entirely performance based and you will sometimes see guys become PM before they are 30? Or is it a structured process and takes X amount of years regardless of how good you are?
It is largely about the ability to play politics and generate revenue.
Heard tokat was over 9 figures…
source?
It was implied that in one year (presumably 2021) he grossed more than in all prior years combined - which almost certainly means a very high 8, or 9 figure year.
Profit per partner at watchell Lipton Rosen and Katz is literally 10mm. 8 figures at the best investment bank is not surprising at all
Wachtel is also one of the leanest and money making law firms. I don’t think it’s a perfect comparison especially since Wachtel uses less under Partner level people per deal than a bank would.
hah. I just looked it up on wikipedia. Wachtel is literally 1st in profit per partner
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_law_firms_by_revenue
CVP partners are in wrong job.
“Last year, six partners at Kirkland, including some who were recruited during the year, each made at least $25 million, according to people with knowledge of the arrangements who weren’t authorized to discuss pay publicly. Several others in its London office made around $20 million.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/01/business/law-firm-pay-salary.html
I missed the days when traders would make over $2 billion in today's money over 4-year periods. Now you can only really do that at HFs.
What??
Yeah, WHAT? DID I JUST READ BILLION
lol wjat
I think he is referring to pnl not comp
Ofc many CVP partners (not that there are many to begin with) are making $10mm+. That would imply they bring in like $30mm in M&A fees a year; many do more than that. It's a lumpy business but some of these guys will have blowout years where they pull $50mm in fees over a couple transactions.
What would you say the average age is for someone to reach partner at an EB like CVP. Is it possible to make it in your early 30s?
I mean, it's possible but I haven't even seen an early 30s MD at my bank (which is more akin to a BB), however I do know they exist. Doing the math, even if you managed to get a D to MD promo after 3 years, it's pretty challenging. I think CVP is a 3 year analyst program? So 3 analyst, 3, associate, 3 VP, 3 director - that's 12 years. Assuming you start at 21, maybe you get there at 33. However, D to MD is more like 5 years nowadays and secondly, it's much harder to be an EB MD because you can't go into your bag of products like credit, equity research (although some EBs have this), ECM, DCM etc to win revenue, it's just M&A.
Look, I understand it's fun fantasizing about how much money you can make at a certain (young age) but it's just such an outlier scenario that it's not worth dwelling on. It's the same with juniors exiting to PE because they know the top 10% of PE makes 2-3x as much as banking; the problem is that 80% of PE associates end up worse than if they stayed in banking (where competition is easier).
you won't be young and rich man. accept it and stop being delulu.
Former CVP analyst here. Partner comp (actually all comp figures for that matter) are closely held at Centerview but can confirm 8 figures is achievable at the partner level (have anecdotally heard of some pretty unreal comp numbers in the 9 figs from some rainmakers that I do believe are possible given comp model). Unclear what an average partner makes but I think pretty reasonable to assume in the high 7 figures and in excess of most if not all other banks (excluding Q). In addition to your cut of fees, partners also get distributions from the broader firm profit pool (as do all other employees)
Speaking from experience, the people that start off at CVP as analysts don’t really know what they have until they leave. There is still this draw to PE given the promise of carry and upside but I think more and more people these days are realizing MF PE just isn’t worth it and banking is a real viable career path. I went MF route and am taking down a fraction of the cash comp vs. my peers who stayed while working worse hours with more stress. That said, they are still diff jobs and if you really like investing it’s worth the comp haircut, but if people were fully rational actors and only solving for comp, makes sense to stay. That said ofc, much easier said than done to make partner and firm has been getting more aggressive on pushing out underperformers
On career progression, it’s analyst (3 yrs) —> associate (3.5 years) —> principal (5 yrs) —> MD (variable) —> Partner. Start hitting 7 figures early principal years depending on bank performance
Really appreciate you taking the time to share this. Could you briefly share your view on the WLB at CVP as you become more senior? I understand it’s a job that requires being hands on at all times but are principals, MDs, and partners still working most days until 12-2am?
Unhelpful answer but this will depend on the person. Some people are natural night owls / have other commitments and choose to work late, others create a lot of work and do it to themselves, and ofc will all depend on the people / teams you work with, but I know principals+ that have pretty good lifestyles. It is still a finance job and the volume of work is what it is, but the most successful people effectively leverage teams underneath them. The counter argument to this is that CVP runs very leanly (this is largely why they pay so much) so the best associates / principals tend to get staffed with lower quality junior resources for firm efficiency, and this obviously reduces QoL if you’re in the top ranks of competency.
Former cvp as well and the junior principals were not 7 figures
Feeling like the cvp comp has been inflated on this site
Agree there are a lot of figures thrown around on this site (including but not limited to CVP). However, I have a few comp data pts at or around 7-figures in early-mid principal level for top performers. All of this qualified that it is subject to firm performance and bucketing (increasingly important as firm scales). To their credit, comp and performance at CVP has been very consistent (think they’ve only had one down year since founding). Comp volatility increases as you rise in tenure of course.
For anyone confused with the lingo - generally means 5 year as VP where vast majority of banks do 3, followed by most likely a perpetual execution director role. Just putting it out there for those planning to be rainmaker by 29.
Feel like this is a personal and true attack on both of us lmao. See you in 5 years brother!
Was it difficult to attain MF PE from CVP? Seems like the firm doesn't place extremely well with MF and wondering if that's a function of self selection or if it's because recruiting is frowned upon
Ain’t no way people are clearly 9 figures bro 😭. That’s how I can tell you are likely still in high school
Tokat exists...
any chance you can go over centerview analyst bonus figures? surprisngly hard to come by recent ones. seems like centerview pays a lot more than other banks, but feel like that premium has slightly gone down?
Also, Centerview will always hire the BB rainmakers. It’s better to go to a different bank and come over once you’re hitting your stride
Not unbelievable at all
Look, firms will pay the least $ they need to retain an employee. If someone is pulling 8 or 9 figs it obviously means they are generating significant value. Very significant.
They are not making 8 figs while playing video games and scrolling through TikTok, like most college kids.
My point is these figs should not be shocking because there's genuine justification and this is not unique to "high finance." Look at Big Law, S&T, Hollywood, pro sports, and so on and so forth.
Lol at the casual shitting on college kids for living out the last few days as kids. Keep it up boys - don’t have much longer.
When handler sued CVP, CVP said they had paid him “hundreds of millions of dollars” so
What I am more curious about is how many of these rainmakers or partners that make seven- to eight-figure incomes are homegrown MDs, as opposed to laterals and what their comp/trajectory is
At CVP a grand majority are laterals. That's just their business model. Get a bunch of clients and have the potential to make $15M+
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