PE / IB Pay

At what point does PE make more than IB in MM or UMM firms?

IB Associate makes $300k - $400K now and PE associate makes total comp of $220K - $260K based on the firms that I interviewed with. Wondering at what level is PE comp higher.

21 Comments
 

Is IB associate comp really $300-400k in this market? At a MF and making $375k-390k (senior associate) with VP's at my firm making $500k+.

At that point, I don't think cash comp really matters as I'm working 60 hours (2-3 hours of weekend work) compared to my IB counterparts pushing hours consistently 60-70 hours. Oh and don't forget that carry starting from VP which at UMM/MF is anywhere from $1.5m-$3m (granted this will take 5-7 years to actually see anything)

 

PE cash comp typically doesn’t beat IB bull market cash comp. The big differences are 1) PE base + bonus is paid out of management fees, so there’s close to zero risk of a bad year (vs IB that can work hard all year and still get a shitty bonus or laid off), and 2) PE starts to participate in the upside. As a MM VP, I get $500k cash, which is more or less competitive, and then I also have a $2MM carry allocation - which could be an extra $200-400k/yr or could be nothing, and either way I won’t know for 5-10 years.

If we do 3x in 7 years, it blows IB out of the water. If we do 1.6x in 12 years, completely different story. 

 

Can you shed some light on senior associate pay? My understanding is that there's a much more direct path for IB moving upward than in PE.

I know associate pay are usually $110k - 120k base for 1st year and 100% bonus plus $10k signing. After 2 years, what do you expect for senior associate?

 
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