- Already A Member? (Sign In)
In the search for higher compensation, hedge fund employees may assume that the larger the fund, the higher the rewards. The results of the survey, however, show this not to be the case for all roles.
Analyst salaries remain virtually flat at funds with up to $1 billion in assets under management. Unlike last year, we found this year that funds with more than $1 billion AUM paid higher total compensation. Analysts responding to the survey earned three times more at funds of more than $1 billion than at those smaller.
Traders also benefit from being a $1 billion plus funds. Once again this year, we found that the lowest paying firms for traders are those funds which have between $100 million and $500 million in assets. In this case, traders would actually be better compensated at a smaller firm .
Similarly, while salaries across the board tend to be higher at funds with more than $1 billion in assets, this is not the case for those in Portfolio Manager jobs. For the second year in a row, Portfolio Managers reported far higher earnings at funds with between $500 million and $1 billion in assets. The “bigger is better” scenario simply does not apply Portfolio Managers.
In addition to size of assets under management, size of group in terms of employees also impacts compensation. Reported salaries are highest at groups with between 10 and 100 employees. Last year, the average total salary for an employee in a group of between 50 and 100 employees was just over $500,000 and dropped to $460,000 in 2009.
Compensation is lowest in the largest groups as duties can be segmented and roles kept very specific. It seems the smaller the group, the more volatile the compensation scheme. Again, a reflection of small firms truly being run like small businesses.
Back to the 2010 Hedge Fund Compensation Report
