PE Analyst Comp

Looking on behalf of an analyst, any idea for where to find PE Analyst Comp numbers? Am sure there must be a report like the one from Odyssey Search (doesn’t break out fund size) or Heidrich & Struggles (only shows associates) that shows this and breaks out comp by fund size (otherwise will skew mega fund).

Assume market floor for A1 in NYC/SF starts at: 100k base and 75% bonus with a bump to 200k all in for A2?

For example, base 75k and bonus 75k would be considered below market for a fund of any size, correct?

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My FT analyst offer (5B AUM MM in NYC/SF) was 100k base and 50k bonus so I don’t think something less than 150k all in is entirely out of the question for a city outside of the major hubs. Would say the lower pay becomes more normal once you get to funds 5B AUM and you see a greater variance in pay bands. 

 

Thank you for the color. Am I correct in assuming your offer was an An1 offer?

Based on that, would you say it’s fair to assume that the An2 getting paid a 75k/75k is under-market in NYC/SF if the firm is ~5bn AUM in PE?

Asking for clarification, as I have yet to see that low of a base in this market at 75k. Additionally, the dude is a second year and probs pays higher taxes on the bonus. Not sure if I’m missing something in thinking that’s off, even if the all-in is close to an A1. I know PE analysts outside of MFs take a discount to banking, but seems hard to believe the gap is that wide for second years.

 

Yep, An1. Agree the comp package seems a bit below market from the low base, especially for 5b AUM and NYC/SF. Haven’t seen a base that low either 

 
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True, but he’s also writing as a second year associate so it suggests that the numbers were pre-pandemic and also informed by being located where COL must be lower than the other numbers quoted.

I wasn’t trying to jab but trying to get clarification as, again, analyst numbers are not very transparent. Fund size and AUM, of course, play a role, but so do other factors like pre/post pandemic, COL, individual performance, company performance, etc.

Each story/number quoted is helpful for the analysts as they don’t have a large sample set like the others. So if an upper or lower bound is quoted, they should have an idea of what factors went into that. To that extent, I hope this discussion is helpful for the analysts or gives them more data so they are informed.

100k is a lot of money - don’t get me wrong. However, the devil is in the details especially for folks on a lower base as living costs are fixed to an extent and inflation & diminishing relative spending power is likely making it harder for the guys on the lower end of the data set.

 

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