Goldman Sachs PWM Financial Analyst
Hello,
I see some people on Linkedin working as Financial Analysts at GS PWM, and I tried reading up on what that actually means. Does anyone have any insight into,
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what their tasks are
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career progression
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compensation
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team structure
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exit opportunities
Much appreciated.
Hi Summer Associate in AM - Equities, any of these threads helpful:
More suggestions...
I hope those threads give you a bit more insight.
If you have knowledge on JPM's PB, then it's the same thing as their analyst role. Only difference in progression is there's no split in client structure, so you'll become an advisor like everyone else. And from my conversations, salary is a bit lower than street, but bonus is higher to make up for it, and I believe there's a commission component as well. Beyond that, definitely has the Goldman feel of being thrown to the wolves on day 1.
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Tasks: Analysts are jack of all trades on the portfolio side & PWAs (private wealth advisors) rely on them heavily. Tasks include: trading & rebalancing (options, structured notes, stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, currency, foreign stock, fixed income, flows in and out of managed accounts, etc), fielding client requests (only job in finance where you can pick up phone and public CEO / private company founder / PE/VC/HF founder is on the other end as a 22 year old), meeting prep (portfolio reviews / asset allocation & risk modeling / trust & estate planning), assist with pre-transaction planning / pitches (working out deal proceeds for a prospect and customizing an asset allocation, etc), general coordination between the client and specialty groups at the firm (client wants to speak with PM of strategy / research analyst / structure a solution around concentrated single stock, etc), various ad hoc tasks to “keep the lights on”
Progression:
Analyst for 3 years (increasing comp) at which point it is a time to make a decision (and make associate) Two paths: advisor (PWA) or financial investment professional (FIP). If PWA path is chosen, analyst enters a 2 year Business Development Professional (BDP) program which bridges the gap between analyst and advisor (transitions to driving revenue). After 2 years, BDP enters NPWA program (advisor that is not yet self-sustaining and has to eat what they kill to convert to a full self-sustaining PWA; ~3 year clock on a NPWA to bring in ~$80-100M AUM). If FIP is chosen, you transition to becoming a team COO... FIP is only really viable on larger teams (think $10M revenue) as they are comped out of the PWAs team pool. Associate FIPs are still salary / bonus until they hit VP (2-3 years) at which point they swap to commission. VP promote happens on advisor side once self sustaining conversion is made, FIPs can make VP a year or 2 faster, but comp upside to PWA is much higher.
Comp
Analysts are salary/bonus until they are either a PWA or VP FIP. Base is $85k and moves up at a slower rate than JP, but in the 5-10% range depending on performance. Bonus is 10-20% at each level of 3 year analyst program. BDP comp is murkier, but less than equivalent JPM comp. NPWA base is $125-150k and bonuses vary wildly on how fast you start to bring in clients. PWA comp average is ~$1.25M (still a VP)... MD’s (significantly fewer in this division and relative to JPM because you have to be a top 10% producer, you don’t just get the title) make $3M minimum (some well into $10M+}. FIP comp varies but starting out likely is better than BDP/NPWA... average FIP is probably a few hundred $k; have heard of some approaching $1M on mega teams.
Structure
Team has 3 roles:
Analyst, WMP (on desk operations / client service) advisor with varying levels of seniority and comp for each type. GS PWM is a hybrid private bank and wire house model (really operate most similar to JPM PB, but advisors get paid % of revenue). Unique relative to the other major players and just like GS broadly, there is a heavy emphasis on delivering the firm to clients and business principle #1 (clients come first). Culture and hours are more similar to GS IBD vs GMD (S&T).
Exit
This is the exit opp (brofessor covers well as nauseam). But have seen analysts leave for top 10 MBA (and then M/B/B / IBD / Corp dev), mobility to GSAM / IBD (hard, but doable) / divisional management / strategy (PWM analysts are in a high exposure seat because we run so lean, so you can make good impressions w/ top brass), other PWM opportunities / family offices (seen some very good placements as CFO/COOs here). Ultimately the analyst is a jack of all trades (not going to have same technical skills as banking) but has a very underrated skill set of professionalism / bearing that comes from interacting with a lot of the worlds most impressive people regularly. I’d say that the hardest part is getting your foot in the door to more traditional exit opps due to the stigma of PWM, but once it is in and they have a chance to demonstrate capabilities, it seems that people crush it
Apologies for brevity / typos... this app makes it impressively difficult to draft messages
Great comment. Been recruiting with GS PWM in Chicago for a year now (COVID) and hearing comp & career progression from an analyst is super helpful.
Message me - I help manage Chi recruiting
Thank you for this. What percentage of advisors become self-sustaining and graduate the program? How far along are the advisors making $1m+?
Attrition is high (70-80% I’d guess). Better success rate for those that promote from analyst (don’t see too many analysts not make it because they’ve been doing it for 5 years and know what they’re getting in to). It’s highly varied... could do it in a couple years if you hit a whale... I’d say average PWA making over $1M has been in the advisor seat for at least 5-7 years... some less, some more.
Can you provide some more insight on the FIP career path? What does their pay progression look like starting out at the associate level year 1 and what their daily responsibilities look like? Does GS PWM hire externally for this role?
I’m not seeing any job postings for this role on the GS website, are they also called something else? Thanks!
Career path is generally analyst to FIP which takes ~ 4 years. Comp is very murky as really only big teams can support a FIP and after the first year or two, they’re paid entirely by the team, so it varies wildly. Day to day is managing workflow down to analysts (FIP is the COO/CIO for the team) with a lot of client interaction. Much less portfolio review / material generation and much more running meetings (often w/o the PWA). There are so few FIP seats that I doubt they get posted externally. I have heard of big teams bringing someone from a different finance background (trading / PM / even bankers / economists) to be the team’s FIP and paying them quite well.
Hard to give a clear cut answer, but hope this helps.
Hey not sure what info you can provide, but with JPM PB raising first-year salary to $100K, has GS discussed what they'll do for their PWM division? Obviously their IB is starting $110K, but not sure if PWM followed suit. Thank you!
Could you message me? Have a few questions if you don't mind
Thank you for the insight! Can you elaborate on the Wealth Management Professional role and pay at the associate/VP level? Are these individuals ever able to move into more of a FIP role? Thanks again!
Wealth management professional (WMP) are on desk operations / service professionals. Think account opening, asset transfers, subscription documents, etc. They probably interact with clients the most. Up until VP, they are hourly workers. They receive supplemental compensation from the team (percent of team revenue), which is highly varied and negotiated by WMP / team. I’d estimate that most earn less than equal level financial analysts until the associate level where some may earn more. Some VP WMPs do quite well, but in theory the FA should be earning more (would now be a PWA). They probably top out on average at $200-300k, but hard to say. I have not seen a WMP transition into the FIP role as they are so different, BUT I have seen a few enter the PWA role and do quite well because they have such a good handle on the mundane which is extremely undervalued. Generally it is a different personality type / person that enters WMP vs FA/FIP… not wrong or right, just different… WMPs are generally not interested in sales / taking risks and FAs/FIPs are generally not interested in admin work. Work life balance is generally better for WMPs and probably earn more per hour worked (there is enough of a gap between how much each group works)
Thanks so much. You info helps a lot!
For those who have internal transfer - as far as I know, GS has 18 months minimum requirement for the first job - are they still regarded as 1st year analyst or senior analyst when transiting into new role? Is it doable to transit into investing side of AM or rsch?
And could please provide us more color on the exit opps for product team? Do they have a chance to other AM shops?
18 months is the standard rule but I’ve seen mobility before this. Everyone I’ve seen has kept same level / title when switching roles with the exception of one coming from a totally different function and region and having to take a title demotion (i think comp increase though).
I’ve seen various exit oops from product groups ranging from startups to banking to true investing seats.
Is the exit ops the same for non-product group FAs? How easy is it to transfer from normal FA role to maybe GSAM or PWM product?
Thanks a lot. Do you know the story of the person who successfully transferred within 18 months? How did they do it?
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