How does your pay compare to a fund manager’s? Here are the average earnings for the UK’s hedge fund and asset managers
With potentially millions under management, you can see why fund managers are well-compensated – but how does your pay compare?
New research from salary benchmarking site Emolument.com suggests hedge fund employees are at the top of the industry, pay-wise – consistently earning more than portfolio managers working for traditional asset management firms.
Indeed, at director level, their earnings tend to more than double after promotion, while for those in asset management, salaries rise 60 per cent.
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Meanwhile, bonuses make up almost a fifth of total pay for those in junior positions – while at director level, that rises to 35 per cent in asset management, and 50 per cent for hedge funds.
But the bigger bucks go to those in the US, where fund managers at analyst level can expect to earn the equivalent of £66,000, compared with £45,000 in Europe. At managing director level, that rises to £227,000, up from £222,000 in Europe.
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"With the intensification of the regulatory environment, to many, hedge funds are perceived as a heaven with less stringent risk management processes than banks or asset management firms and where a regular adrenaline rush is still part of daily working life," pointed out Alice Leguay, co-founder of Emolument.com.
"The attraction also lies in the possibility of earning very large bonuses at hedge funds early on compared to a constrained earning trajectory following a tiresome hierarchical process in many of the larger and more regulated institutions. Better pay and more fun. What's not to like?"