PE Perks 2026
Saw a thread on IB perks and PE Associate comp. What are some perks to expect in PE not present in banking?
Heard of Apax holiday parties on PJs to Mykonos and other crazy stories.
Obviously, the above are not what you should be expecting but what is standard for a MM PE firm that makes day-to-day better?
Example: $10B+ Fund in LA - First class flights everywhere and five-star hotel (Ritz, Four Seasons), catered lunch in-office, $40 dinner stipend for pickup within one mile radius from office, $500 quarterly wellness stipend, business school admissions counselor, Uber Blacks to and from office, fully stocked pantry with fruits and chef etc.
UMM fund. $40 dinner stipend, first class business travel w/ flex expense policy. That’s about it.
No real associate trips, etc
what about lunch or weekend meals? Does company cater?
Hair loss.
Honestly tho
European funds have pretty great off-sites or at least the large ones. Ski trips and/or offsites are common. Not at a European fund though, unfortunately so we get the more standard dinner stipends, business travel if far, ubers, etc. only.
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How are you getting time and a half pay as an associate? Long hours is the norm and you are quoted a fixed base + bonus
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Time and a half pay is the greatest comp. Highly doubt any fund is doing that for associates; would be paying up like a mill given how many times we work past 5 PM.
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Anyone know perks at public MFs? Like KKR/BX/etc? I assume can’t be great. Is it just standard banking perks like $35 for dinner, no lunch, etc?
At one of these - in-office breakfast and lunch cafe (all free and have stocked pantry) + dinner stipend. Business or first class travel (>2hr) + 5 star hotels everywhere. Uber Blacks from office at night or early morning. Annual offsite, quarterly social stipend, annual wellness benefit. No fee no carry Associate coinvest.
Any clue how standard these perks are? To me I’ve always had the image that BX/Carlyle type have a bigger discount than a KKR/Apollo type but those benefits are meaningful across several years. Just curious as I signed at one before hearing anything
$200 gym stipend. The firm pays for everyone's phone bill. No meal stipends. Crappy, strict expense policy. Good Healthcare.
No meal stipend is crazy. Nothing even for working late nights or weekends?
Yeah nothing. It's a bummer.
One of my friends works at MF and they allow for no-fee / no-carry co-invest with leverage. Associates are provided ability to borrow up to $500K which accrues interest at ~7% PIK
Directionally - if MFPE yields >7% IRR on associate investment - that's all positive earnings. So, $500K investment growing at 20% IRR (no fees / no carry) effectively nets 13% PA or $65K net of PIK drag
Lol — MF returns these days are 12-14%. You’re not getting close to 20%. Still seems like a great perk, but would drop your figure quite a bit. And you have to stay for a longgg time to see that…
Ya I mean tbh — is it even a good deal at 7% PIK? Seems like a bit of a gamble these days of if a mega fund will consistently yield above this or you’ll be underwater
"LOL" - 20% gross IRR will directionally lose ~300bps to carry and ~200bps to management fees, so it's very easy to bridge to aformentioned returns for internal IPs who can sidestep GP expense
Also this carry is earmarked for associates, fully vesting on completion of program, so no "golden handcuffs" compelling any IP to stay. Inversely, it would be a terribly designed incentive structure with ~80%+ class attrition to punitively clawback carry value, which ultimately is a material (%) of NW at this early stage in career
Program is lucrative but soley designed for associates to have skin-in-game and care about deals performing well. Theortically, there are a handful of MFPE funds such as Insight, SLP etc. that overdeployed into tech during peak valuation boom and IRRs likely below PIK interest expense where associate would lose money with this program
"Heard of Apax PJs to Mykonos and other crazy stories!!"
Hey man it's 2026 not 1980. You will get free meals and an uber - hope this helps!
apax did fly the entire team out to mykonos though, 2022/23 i think
My bank has a fruit bowl in the office most days of the week
mine has cereal but they take it away at 11am sharp
bump
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The best perk in PE isn't the car allowance, the gym membership, or the free meals.It's working with a fund that actually teaches you how to build businesses, not just model them.Too many talented analysts burn out at funds that treat them like Excel monkeys (private joke ). They get great comp, sure, but they're not learning the skills that will make them successful operators or investors long-term.When evaluating offers, ask yourself: Will I work directly with portfolio company management? Does the fund have an operational team I can learn from?
Will I see deals from sourcing to exit, or just the middle? Are the partners actually involved, or are they just capital allocators?
The real perk is the education. Everything else is just compensation.
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