Does anyone have an idea of how comp should look like as a solo analyst? I started with a major brokerage (CW, JLL, CBRE) right after school in June 2019 as an intern for a successful debt and equity broker. It's in a big but not huge market in the West (Seattle, San Diego, Denver). I have been an "intern" for him since, being paid like shit while doing the entire analyst workload as there is no other analysts. The "team" is just me and him. I will be promoted to analyst very soon and am looking for general ideas on what to ask for comp. For background, this broker I work for is young 30s and personally cleared over $600K in take home fees last year.
I don't really know how much to ask because from what I understand I would essentially be paid mostly by him. The brokerage would pay a salary for me up to $50-60K (or around there, I'm not sure) and any additional comp/bonus would have to be worked out with the broker I work for directly. Ideally, I'd like to be around $80K all in this year, with opportunity to grow with him as he grows, hopefully a percentage of every deal as well.
To be clear I do ALL analyst duties. I write our books, work with creative to make it look nice, manage our blasts and lender's responses to them. I am on calls with clients and lenders pretty often. I'm very client-facing. He spends all his time on the phone talking to lenders personally so basically any sort of task that doesn't involve calling a client I do myself. He also is away from work often, either golfing or drinking and I have handled mini-crisis for him when he's "unreachable" and clients are antsy. I feel like I do provide a significant value.
With all that said, does anyone have any ideas? I'm thinking of asking for $70K base with say 3% of fees after the split with the brokerage company. Am I in the right ballpark? Should I ask for more? Thanks.
I'm currently with one of the major brokerage groups working in a Tier 2 market (Atlanta, Dallas, etc.) and do the exact same type of work for an investment sales team. I think $80k all in would be good to shoot for, though without much experience, a $70k base may be a little high. About a year ago, I heard that Eastdil was offering their first year analysts $70k base so it may be tough for you to achieve that at a CB/CW/JLL type. In terms of my comp, instead of a % of deals, I get a discretionary bonus a few times per year, which the broker may be more inclined to go for. Good luck on the compensation negotiation.
$70k + 3% sounds reasonable.
Keep in mind you should try to negotiate salary and % split independently to each be as high as possible, since one is coming from the firm and the other from the broker, and you don't want one party to lowball you based on the other (i.e. firm is willing to offer $15k raise thinking you'll only get a 1% or 2% split, but finds out broker is giving a 3% split so they only offer $5k raise instead). If your broker is cool then its probably better to negotiate salary with the firm first assuming you get no split, then whatever split you get is all gravy.
This may seem disconnected, sorry I've been writing it in phases for a bit. I hit on some additional stuff that may not be useful, but i feel like the forum would appreciate.
As an analyst in your situation at Eastdil, I was paid far less than all of my friends doing the same and had far less client time. The dudes at HFF (RIP) were making almost double at the end of the day with the pooled fees. This forum needs to seriously bifurcate ES from everyone else. Looking back on it, I should have picked HFF over ES (OMG!!!).
That said, the comp you've laid out is very fair for your workload. The unfortunate truth is that the larger the analyst pool, the better you'll be compensated. Reason being - the team has the budget for it. Everyone gets paid better on the most profitable teams. The assistant on the top team in any office is better paid than most associate level brokers on shittier teams.
The broker you're describing does well, especially for a secondary market and age, but if he net about 600 it means he grossed around 1.2-1.5mm. Most firms budget for teams who are NETTING north of $1mm - that's the typical cut off point. If a secondary market team can't hack that, they'll task a larger team in the region to service it - especially on the DSF side of things. The firm won't say "here's a budget for your analyst", they'll give them a lump sum and let them spend it as they see fit. It changes every single year, and is solely based on last years performance. These funds pay for everything from client events to support staff salary, and the team decides what it's going to pay for what. You are NEVER negotiating with the firm, you're always negotiating with the team.
All that said, you're in a very opportunistic situation. The dude seems like a comer, you seem to like him (most important), and you're first on the ship. The downside is that he burns out next year and you're screwed. I'd go more for fee splits - if the firm really is giving him a budget for you, don't ask for a cent over it but say you want to take home 5-7% of every closing fee. That way he knows he's not truly coming out of pocket for you. You're also incentivized more, and overall it looks like you care more. Sounds like he's busy, I'd also ask to work the scraps. He probably passes on ~5 small deals a year due to bandwidth - ask to work those deals. Set up a higher split on those, something like 40/60, and get execution experience. Your ceiling will also improve tremendously. He has no downside here, and you have huge upside. You'll also likely faze into a production role faster, and if he truly takes off - you're golden. This might seem like a big ask, but honestly you're doing more than most of my associate level guys. If you buy into his program, actually buy into it.
Hope this helped.
I was in the exact same position as OP at a major brokerage and was able to negotiate salary with the firm and then split with my broker independently (and then firm tried to counter with an even higher salary when I left). Our office had a payroll budget for salaries that was completely separate from whatever brokers wanted to do to take care of their own support people.
Kinda missed the bigger point I was trying to make, but I've been at 3 of them - receiving and giving side of it - and all operated the same for non-shared staff. Regardless, the broker is going to control it, even if they're using the firm as a buffer.
that was not my experience at 1 of them
What office did you work out? Weird bc when I worked there I made significantly more then my buddy at HFF.
Smaller office, but major gateway on the East Coast (the - after the pooled fees, I got crushed. Could have been a good 2-year run for them, but that incentive made them a lot more than anyone else in our space.
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