Shareholder advisory questions

Hi Monkeys. I recently became aware of shareholder advisory/activism defence as a field, and it seems super interesting. I wanted to see if anyone has any more knowledge of this field — it seems that banks are the primary players, but do all banks have a team for this? How is the comp? Lifestyle? Exit opps? Are the teams typically within IB or Capital Markets groups? Are they separate? A bank-by-bank basis? Who goes into these roles, typically?

4 Comments
 

It’s pretty different from IB even though it’s an IB group.

The bank is often using the defense assignment as a foot-in-the-door for a deal assignment later on. The bank’s direct compensation for the defense work is low but a % of those will lead to M&A work later.

Lifestyle and comp will be similar to IB at the junior levels.

The biggest problem is exit options. Junior defense IB folks rarely if ever place into PE or other buy side. I know one exception personally, but he had to first do an extra year in a normal IB group and he also had unique family connections that contributed.

If you wanted the traditional IB route badly and didn’t land it, I do think these defense roles can be a good plan B but you need to be ready to transition to normal IB first in order to get credit for “time served” as a banker in the eyes of buy side firms. The defense skill set has almost no overlap with finance/valuation/modeling so don’t let a group tell you that you’ll exit to an activist fund or something.

So where do they exit to - usually a more traditional IB role or something miscellaneous that wasn’t hiring them for the experience they developed in the defense role.

 

Any idea how it would be from a career perspective? Would go into it for long haul instead if that's a good call

 
Most Helpful

Assumenda recusandae laudantium totam alias quos repellat consequatur quo. Voluptas dolores unde inventore et omnis. Non mollitia dignissimos molestias rem non error ullam hic.

Voluptatem porro beatae ipsam tenetur delectus et odit. Sit repellendus optio et rem iste nostrum quae. Reiciendis quidem eum consectetur error animi. Facilis consectetur voluptas sint. Est culpa cum sit in. Odio sed sit repudiandae quaerat ut blanditiis. Dignissimos quo eaque eos voluptatem cum.

Porro sunt ab eum. Delectus velit incidunt dolores qui perspiciatis sit. Quo voluptatibus blanditiis alias libero facilis illum est.

Quis nemo id eos et aut dolor. Delectus at sit earum soluta aliquid. Enim soluta inventore ad ea quia porro soluta.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.2%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.6%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.2%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (43) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (75) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (66) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
6
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
7
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
10
numi's picture
numi
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”