What are your perks?

Inspired by a thread I saw on IB asking for what dinner budget was. Understand that there is a bit more nuance perhaps in the PE space so curious to what you guys are seeing. I'll start - at a MF:

- $30 dinner budget, all days of week. Weekends have to clock in time but pretty lax there

- Unlimited Uber/ridesharing after work

- No fitness budget/mo sadly

- No free swag (no jacket/vest/bag)

175 Comments
 

MF PE

~$35 for dinner stipend during week after 8 PM or if working more than 4 hours in a day on a weekend, must be in office

Free catered breakfast / lunch / coffee in office

Car ride home after 9 PM, on weekend can go to and from the office

Think we have a fitness stipend of $800 annually but you have to prove going to the gym x times per 6 months or something like that (honestly haven’t looked far enough into it since it’s complicated)

Business class travel if flying >2 hours

 

Insane that they ask you to prove how many times you go to the gym for the fitness stipend. I bet the woke fat crowd or whatever would really take offense to that. "Everyone progresses at their own level" or "everyone works out in different ways". 

 
Most Helpful

UMM PE

1) $40 dinner stipend if you are working past 7 PM (pre-COVID) but now past 5 PM

2) Ubers to and from the office are free after 7 PM

3) In-house kitchen staff that prepares lunch on weekdays. Basic breakfast (cereal, bagels, English muffins, etc.) usually there but sometimes they'll make breakfast as well. Lot of snacks and drinks.

4) Small gym within the office with a fitness instructor who teaches classes 3x a week

5) Business class travel if flying >2 hours (sometimes take corporate jet, think usage has increased post-COVID)

6) Good amount of free swag (pullover, spring jacket, raincoat, vest, duffel bag, YETI water bottle, etc.)

7) Rental car discounts

8) Co-invest opportunities (capped $ amount per deal but fairly generous)

9) ~15 hours of free MBA admissions consulting and $1,000 or $1,500 toward GMAT prep materials and classes

EDIT: We also have a monthly social budget for associate outings and an annual associate ski trip (travel / lodging / tickets / equipment fully covered for associates and plus ones)

Definitely a massive upgrade over banking with respect to perks

 

Associate 2 in PE - LBOs

UMM PE

1) $40 dinner stipend if you are working past 7 PM (pre-COVID) but now past 5 PM

2) Ubers to and from the office are free after 7 PM

3) In-house kitchen staff that prepares lunch on weekdays. Basic breakfast (cereal, bagels, English muffins, etc.) usually there but sometimes they'll make breakfast as well. Lot of snacks and drinks.

4) Small gym within the office with a fitness instructor who teaches classes 3x a week

5) Business class travel if flying >2 hours (sometimes take corporate jet, think usage has increased post-COVID)

6) Good amount of free swag (pullover, spring jacket, raincoat, vest, duffel bag, YETI water bottle, etc.)

7) Rental car discounts

8) Co-invest opportunities (capped $ amount per deal but fairly generous)

9) ~15 hours of free MBA admissions consulting and $1,000 or $1,500 toward GMAT prep materials and classes

EDIT: We also have a monthly social budget for associate outings and an annual associate ski trip (travel / lodging / tickets / equipment fully covered for associates and plus ones)

Definitely a massive upgrade over banking with respect to perks

It’s a Boston based firm. Not Berkshire

 

MM Fund (~$1.5Bn fund size)
 

- No formal dinner budget (effectively $50 though because you need a receipt for anything above that and it’s just sort of a pain to go through that whole process)

- First class everywhere (usually take the jet if traveling with a partner)

- $1000/person annual budget for bonding events at each level (associates, VP//principles, admin staff). You can also expense random HH / dinner events outside of this budget  

- $1000/year for general wellness (very loosely defined but can include gym, personal training, home fitness equipment,  massages, masterclass, etc.)

- Other things: very good health/dental/vision coverage that is completely paid for, cell phone and home internet covered, Ubers to office/home are covered 

 

Top GE:

  • ~$1000 p.m. "food" budget on corporate card to use on anything from groceries to drinks
  • Uber from office post 7pm
  • Gym in office with classes (though not during COVID)
  • Non-strict budget for whatever team outing we do
  • Monthly free swag allowance
  • Really good health insurance (on par with MBB)
  • Deal carry on every deal you're involved with on top of the fund carry
  • Cash comp in line with MF PE, with pretty good WLB (definitely better than MBB)
  • A bunch of other smaller cool perks (e.g., wellness apps, streaming/newspapers subscriptions etc.)
 

MMPE

Co-invest with fund-provided leverage

Free breakfast, lunch, and dinner (no price limit, just “be reasonable”)

Free transportation to/from office

Regular team outings at partners’ properties (ski trips in Aspen, summer days in the Hamptons, golf at highly exclusive clubs, etc)

$300 per month to spend on social, professional, or fitness memberships (Equinox, SoHo House, etc)

Flexible spending on the corporate card if at least 4 team members are present (again, “just be reasonable”)

First class travel on flights over 2 hours

No limit on hotel budget (same as above)

 

$50bn AUM credit- and real estate-focused firm

- $20 seamless lunch when in-office (select from a rotation of 5-6 restaurants per day shared across the firm)

- $25 for dinner when working past 8pm (also in-office only)

- Ubers if leaving office after 8pm

- $55/month for cell service

- $1000/year (taxable) for gym membership/outdoor recreation (eg ski tickets)/etc, plus large discounts at a few luxury gym chains

- Business travel for flights over 3 hours

- Annual 3-5 day international team outing (at least pre-COVID)

- Very good health, dental, vision insurance (or at least better than I had at BB IB)

 

For me it was $50 dinner budget and rides home (I'd often do rides to the office too with no opposition). Otherwise perks were pretty light compared to banking though we never thought anything of it.

 

MF RE (work under an extremely lax MD)

No time cutoff or budget for dinner expense, but keep it reasonable so really anything under $35 is usually fine and after 8pm is what ill draw the line for myself

Generally can call a car if I'm in past 10 or so

Free office wide lunch one day a week

$1k year gym stipend; apple watch / fitness tracker stipend

All expenses covered during travel (usually ~5-10 days a month?) First class > 4hr flights; jet for weird places if commercial is a pain

 

$100bn + AuM firm in NY.

Pay  - sub 200k TC in NY for top bucket Y1 associates in 2020 with a portion of bonus paid out in stock with three year vest.

$10 - daily lunch stipend only if in office and only through Seamless.

$10 - dinner stipend if you stay past 930 only if in office.  Need to expense individually through expense tool.

Ubers home after 9:30. Need to do expense individually through tool. 

Economy / basic economy flying if travelling for work unless international then allowance of 200 to "upgrade" if you want.  Can fly private if you own said jet and pay for fuel.

Cabs to airport not allowed in certain international offices

$60 / quarter fitness stipend. 

"fun office and team events"  

Annual ski trip that you pay for lift tickets, lodging, and travel there. Company pays for a dinner when you are there. 

25 days of vacation.

No WFH tech stipend. 

Got two waterbottles, a vest, and a gym bag.  

100% back in office in July.

Can list private equity associate in hinge profile.

 

What kind of garbage firm is this? $10 for dinner in NY?

No cab to airport - will they expense a bus ticket to the nearest bus station instead then??

 

Leading industry-specialized boutique:

  • $600 annual health and wellness budget
  • $250 WFH IT stipend
  • $25 meal allowance when working after 8PM and Uber home
  • $20 monthly coffee budget
  • 1 extra day off if you've worked 60h weeks for a couple of weeks in a row or 75h in a single week
  • Monthly budget for social events and huge budget for larger more infrequent events (e.g., $30K for Christmas party and there's 15 of us in the local office)
  • MBA admission consulting + MBA sponsorship (2 year post-MBA stay clause)
  • Annual company trips
  • Merch (water bottle, vest, branded notepad etc.)
 

Any MFs/UMMs offer MBA sponsorship (tuition reimbursement) for Associates like MBB in consulting do? Seems like a crazy deal where you basically have top mba program paid for and a guaranteed job after?

 

MF PE in London (>$10bn Fund Size)

  • Uber / Taxi home after 8pm; into and from the office on the weekend
  • Well-stocked kitchen with breakfast (cereals, fruits, porridge), snacks and non-alcoholic drinks
  • £10 a day lunch voucher per weekday
  • £35 dinner allowance weekdays / £70 meal allowance per day on the weekend (also applies WFH)
  • Private health insurance
  • 50% reimbursement for gym membership, up to £50 per month
  • Business travel in Business Class on flights within Europe and First Class to the US / Asia
  • Avios earned on Corporate Amex and business travel can be used personally
  • Fund-wide co-investment opportunity
  • Top quarter cash comp
 

Do you get dental under PMI? In London MM - want to push for this. 

  • Food voucher sounds excellent - something useful
  • Gym subsidy is cool (ours is lower at ~£20 p/m)
  • We are the same for Uber / taxi home
  • Biz class is ~4hrs plus (but no First) - but then again, we focus on Europe, so it is a bit moot
  • Same sort of policy re. Avios / miles
  • Carry at all levels
  • Fruit in office & non-alcoholic drinks
  • Private health insurance (coverage is good) 
  • Dinner allowance is basically 'anything reasonable' - so call it ~£25
  • Pension contribution from employer is ~10%
 

UMM

-  $25 for lunch in office and $40 for dinner

- Ubers to/from office

- First class everywhere

- Stay in fancy hotels when traveling

- $300 reimbursement for gym membership

- Pretty liberal with corp card for team building (e.g., grabbing coffee with coworkers, impromptu HHs, the associates do fancy dinners and drinks once a quarter or so)

- Pay for MBA costs (app fees, GMAT registration/classes, admissions consultants, etc. Heard an associate tried to get his trips to admit weekends paid for but don’t actually know if that’s true)

- Subs to business publications paid for (NYT, WSJ, FT, Bloomberg, etc.)

- $500 Amex gift card for Christmas

- 5 week sabbatical for every 5 years of service

- Very very good healthcare (everything is essentially free with no deductible) with all premiums paid

 

Curious if you or others have insight on what healthcare benefits are typical across PE? Had surgery over the past year and it was basically my first time using health insurance, other than standard preventative stuff. After deductible and coinsurance, ended up being ~$25k out of pocket and a bit of a shock. Hadn't ever paid attention before and just assumed I had fine insurance, or never thought about it. Realizing now I don't have any frame of reference for what is good vs. bad health benefits across the industry.

 

Curious if you or others have insight on what healthcare benefits are typical across PE? Had surgery over the past year and it was basically my first time using health insurance, other than standard preventative stuff. After deductible and coinsurance, ended up being ~$25k out of pocket and a bit of a shock. Hadn't ever paid attention before and just assumed I had fine insurance, or never thought about it. Realizing now I don't have any frame of reference for what is good vs. bad health benefits across the industry.

That's like absolute shit tier coverage even out of network with co insurance you should  hit your out of pocket max before then wow

 

S&T at a European Investment Bank in NYC, literally no perks

- No $ for lunch, no $ for dinner (maybe a few catered cookies and fruits when the ceo visits once every quarter)

- No ubers ever (except for that one time subways were flooded and we had to go to the office because we have a strict no wfh policy...)

- No first class

- Cheap hotels

- No gym membership/subsidy/benefits

- No corp card

- Low quality Healthcare etc.

Honestly can't really name a perk....

 

MFPE NYC

  • $20 for lunch, $35 for dinner after 6pm or so, catered lunch once a week
  • Uber home after 8pm
  • While traveling: business class on all travel (whether flying to Asia or Albany), black car everywhere, all expenses / meals paid for with no set cut-off (just don't go crazy), relatively nice hotels (Conrad not Four Seasons)
  • Relatively liberal corporate card usage for team coffee, lunch with banking buddies, ad-hoc Associate drinks, etc.
  • Liberal team outing budget (something like $200/head)
  • Co-invest with firm-provided leverage (no carry for Associates)
  • No 401k match
  • No gym / health stipend
  • Below market pay :)
 

MFPE in NYC

  • $30 for dinner all days of the week, need to log in time on the weekend to use. Can use delivery apps or corp card.
  • Free lunch M-F in office.
  • The office is stocked with snacks/fruit/protein/breakfast foods and beverages.
  • $1K/yr pre-tax for fitness.
  • Random wellness apps.
  • Travel is usually economy for juniors unless the trip is much longer due to economy booking or you can't get economy on same flight as rest of the team.
  • 401K match
  • 80th percentile pay for AS1/AS2s
  • Ubers after 8pm.
  • Free high-end health insurance, only ever pay very low co-pays.
 

We do, and at least a few others, but it might not be universal.

Investor (30+ years); IB/RE/PE/Corp (MD level); currently, head of boutique private equity firm; principal of family office.
 

i work at Sycamore Partners, we have some OK perks

- daily lunch from our choice of capital grill / mastros / avra a few more but i ussually go avra 

- in the summer the company will give us stipends for Montauk houses and weekend Blade helicopters to and from the hamptons

- free apartment maid service 

- we get an dating stipened that can be used for premium versions of hinge / tinder - i use it for onlyfans accounts 

- access to a fleet of sports cars for daily / weekend use 
- complimentary golf tee times at several mid tier courses in the tristate area on the weekends and we have a program that fast tracks us for membership at Winged Foot and Sleepy Hollow 

 

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