Base salaries for asset managers are projected to increase 3.5 percent and incentive pay is projected to rise by zero to 10 percent from 2011 to this year, according to a new study from Greenwich Associates and Johnson Associates.
The study found that the evolving compensation standards could widen the divide between traditional asset management companies and hedge funds. In 2011, hedge fund managers earned about 1.8 times the amount taken home by their counterparts in traditional asset management firms, according to the study.
Although equity professionals out-earn their counterparts in fixed income on average, incentive growth in fixed income is projected to outpace that in equities in 2012.
In equities, professionals can expect the base salary increase for 2012 to be flat to just 5 percent higher than 2011 levels. Fixed income professionals can expect slightly stronger growth in incentives with increases projected between 5 percent and 10 percent from last year to this, the study says.
“Those results reflect an industry that, like the economy and financial markets in general, is slowly regaining strength but lacks conviction and awaits a more robust recovery,” says Kevin Kozlowski, a Greenwich Associates analyst.