The Korn Ferry Compensation Survey of Institutional Sales: Asset Management

Korn Ferry’s European Asset Management Practice surveyed managing directors and directors of institutional sales at asset management firms in the UK and Europe about compensation trends and their impact on hiring.

More than 85 percent of those surveyed said total compensation has remained flat or has gone down over the last three years. A similar percentage—86 percent—believe that this trend is not going to change in the future.

At the same time, regulatory requirements and political pressures have altered the compensation environment, with deferred compensation now a primary component of pay packages. This makes hiring senior talent very costly, as the best candidates want to recoup the unvested deferred pay they leave behind when changing companies. Asset managers must leverage other aspects of their firm to attract talent, hire intelligently to minimize the expensive risk of each new hire, and put more focus on development and retention.