Pay day for boutique fund managers
Fund managers working at boutique firms are set to be paid the most this year, say asset management headhunters. By comparison, fund managers working in investment banks are apparently not quite as happy as they might be.
"The bulk of fund managers have been paid at or below expectations this year," says Petra Rickmeyer, a director of the global financial services practice at search firm Hoggett Bowers. "But star performers have been paid well," she adds.
Rickmeyer says the best paid fund managers are based in boutiques, where bonuses tend to be high relative to base pay. This appears to be borne out by reports on Reuters today that the six directors of fund management boutique JO Hambro Capital Management made an average of more than 1m each last year, with the chief investment officer Chris Mills said to have landed a cool 3.6m.
Most fund managers at US investment banks have been informed of their bonuses already, while those at Axa, Barclays Global Investors, and Credit Suisse Asset Management are apparently set to learn their totals next week. Although not everyone has been paid as well as hoped, headhunters say there are pockets of happiness. - People at the retail arm of Merrill Lynch Investment Management are thought to have been well rewarded, for example, following an outstanding year in 2005.
Well rewarded or not, Samantha Donald, head of the asset management practice at search firm Shepherd Little, says most fund managers are less willing to discuss the dimensions of their payout than their colleagues in investment banking: "There's a lot more discretion, fund managers are less boastful" she says.
