How much am I worth? Junior client relationship role, fund manager
A panel of specialist headhunters give their assessment of typical London pay packages: junior equities client relationship role, fund manager - salary 50,000-60,000 (€70,000-€85,000); bonus 25%-40% depending on individual and institutional performance.
The lot of fund management staff these past few years has been far from easy: an unsettling combination of share prices heading south, poor investor confidence and as a result, fund management teams disbanding or merging, makes the current recovery in markets all the more welcome.
Life has been particularly tricky for the junior client relationship manager (CRM), the person whose role it is to support his or her boss in establishing and maintaining client relationships, be they institutional or retail.
In part this is because fund management generally works on the time-honored principle of 'last one in, first one out' but also because bonuses for those still in work have been so under-whelming.
Average salaries for junior CRMs with perhaps five years experience currently range between 50,000 and 60,000, with some having been raised in response to the low bonuses of recent years as organisations have tried to incentivise CRM roles.
Simon Bell of Napier Scott said: "Bonuses in 2000-2001 on were around 35%-75%, but in 2002-2003 this average fell to between 15% and 35%.
He said CRM teams have generally shrunk by 20% since 2001, with new additions only being made recently as pan-European business flow and the improving outlook for equities has encouraged recruitment.
So how does a junior CRM fill his or her day? The main responsibility is probably the providing information and preparing documents for the senior CRM, and by extension, the client.
Martin Symon, principal consultant at the asset management division of Alexander Mann, points out that the junior CRM may have responsibility for managing the account, more than the relationship.
"He may have to ensure that all client reporting on, say, portfolio valuation and all the administrative functions work smoothly and that the client requirements are met," he said.
However the more senior he gets, the more he will become involved in revenue-adding roles, such as keeping the client informed of new products. Success in such a role could make a big difference to pay, with the more proactive and persuasive doing better than their more reticent peers.
Another key salary determinant is previous investment management expertise - the more the better, with a premium for the individual who can demonstrate money management skills as well as sufficient gravitas to reassure the client that he is in safe hands.
Some institutions will pay CRMs according to the performance of their team, or of individuals within it; others put more emphasis on the performance of the whole institution when they are deciding annual bonuses.
The good news is that the current improvement in markets can only help junior CRMs.
"With strengthened markets, enthusiastic professional CRMs are once again being by sought by asset managers," said Bell, suggesting that the emphasis is very much put on product and communication skills, though experience and determination also count for a lot even for junior CRMs.
After all, to have survived the last bear market is no mean feat: as things pick up junior CRMs looking for salary growth and career advancement are entitled to be increasingly optimistic.
Figures and commentary by Alexander Mann Global Markets and Napier Scott
