PE Megafund Partner Net Worth

Everyone claims that a successful partner at a megafund/UMM will make more than a successful managing director at a BB/EB. But how much more do they actually make? What is the difference in net worth when all is said and done?

 

The two things everybody misses are taxes and Co-invest. A PE partner gets the majority of his comp in carry and only pays ~20% taxes on those dollars. He or she can then reinvest them fee free and carry free in the fund. If the fund performs well, he makes an above market returns on the dollars. To illustrate the point, if you make a 1 dollar, pay taxes, net $0.80 and then invest it at 15% for 10 years you have 3.25. If you make a dollar, net $0.55 and invest it at 10% for ten years you have $1.42.

 
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Really hard to answer this question because SO much depends on the performance of the funds as well as the structure of the PE firm. Also, a founding Partner is going to have significantly better economics than a Partner who was promoted up the ladder. Similarly, a relatively new partner is going to make less than a seasoned one. Put this together with the fact that there is no good way to calculate compensation as it is so lumpy. In 2019 I made more than 4x what I’ve made in my 2nd best year of my career, while this year I’m going to make at most 1/3 of what I did last year — because that’s just how the carried interest happens to get distributed.

All of this considered, I think the best way to evaluate compensation is on a “lifetime earnings” basis. Essentially, how much after-tax earnings does an individual stand to make in various different career paths. My estimate, and this is completely made up and could be way off, is that a Partner at a MF is likely to bring in about $100M lifetime earnings over their entire career.

Carried interest taxation plays an important role for sure. But do realize that in addition to the 20% long term capital gains rate, we also need to pay 3.8% Affordable Care Act plus state and local taxes, which can be 5 - 10%+ on top of the 23.8%. So while I wish it were 20%, the effective rate tends to be closer to 30%. Still way better than taxation on ordinary income, just not as awesome as 20% would be!

CompBanker’s Career Guidance Services: https://www.rossettiadvisors.com/
 

I’ve heard that same $100MM number thrown around from multiple sources.

My sense is that $100MM is in the ballpark for a 50 year old existing partner that has had that seat for 10 or so years already. So by no means representative of what that seat could be worth now considering most of these firms are public so right off the bat 50% or more of the carry pie goes out the door, more mouths to feed, returns compressing, and that even if you get a partner track seat, making partner is by no means guaranteed, nor is the duration of that partner seat to get to $100MM lifetime earnings.

For whatever reason, I’ve been seeing elevated turnover at the partner level at MFs and one doesn’t usually give that seat up voluntarily.

 
CompBanker:
Really hard to answer this question because SO much depends on the performance of the funds as well as the structure of the PE firm. Also, a founding Partner is going to have significantly better economics than a Partner who was promoted up the ladder. Similarly, a relatively new partner is going to make less than a seasoned one. Put this together with the fact that there is no good way to calculate compensation as it is so lumpy. In 2019 I made more than 4x what I’ve made in my 2nd best year of my career, while this year I’m going to make at most 1/3 of what I did last year — because that’s just how the carried interest happens to get distributed.

All of this considered, I think the best way to evaluate compensation is on a “lifetime earnings” basis. Essentially, how much after-tax earnings does an individual stand to make in various different career paths. My estimate, and this is completely made up and could be way off, is that a Partner at a MF is likely to bring in about $100M lifetime earnings over their entire career.

Carried interest taxation plays an important role for sure. But do realize that in addition to the 20% long term capital gains rate, we also need to pay 3.8% Affordable Care Act plus state and local taxes, which can be 5 - 10%+ on top of the 23.8%. So while I wish it were 20%, the effective rate tends to be closer to 30%. Still way better than taxation on ordinary income, just not as awesome as 20% would be!

Is this $100M figure for a founding/managing partner or a managing director level partner?

 

Like I said (implied) in my original post, they are likely NOT leaving voluntarily.

Generally when you get pushed out of a place you don’t trade up for better economics.

They usually either lateral to a similar post elsewhere, which is rare because so few seats up for grabs. Or they trade down a bit to a slightly smaller shop, or sector focused firm.

 

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