Hello, I was given my 2010 bonus yesterday. I think it was a fair amount roughly in line with my expectations. The thing is, there was no discussion about a salary increase for the next year. I work at a small RIA (~$1bil in AUM) thats only been going for 1.5 years and there are no set policies regarding compensation matters. This is also my first job out of university so I have no experience in terms of salary negotiations and the politics of it. Would it be ok to bring up the salary issue to my boss or would this be uncouth? Any advice would greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Buy a ring and put the rest into company stock as levered as possible. Good luck with cold fusion!
jcole21 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Buy a ring and put the rest into company stock as > levered as possible. Good luck with cold fusion! haha! +1
What was the bonus & current salary? What are your job duties?
@Systematic Thanks for the serious reply. All in comp was $60k. I am based in the DC area. It’s a four person shop so I wear many hats. Main responsibilities include: 1. Monitor investment products on a quarterly basis regarding performance, fees and risk-adjusted returns. 2. Prepare performance information for client presentations and quarterly reviews. 3. Rebalance accounts to model portfolios. 4. Execute the firm’s trading operations. 5. I construct and maintain the firm’s composites. 6. Research (with no particular focus). Any time the PMs are curious about something, they’ll ask me to dig in and report findings back to them. Brief Background: graduated in 2008 with a degree in economics and I am a CFA Level 3 Candidate. I was part of the “founding team” (the two PMs and myself) and was instrumental in setting up the firm’s operational infrastructure. This was a lot of grunt work but I believe it has been essential to the firm’s solid performance for the last 1.5 years. Do you think the comp is in line with my contribution or am I being over/under-compensated? Thanks again,
@Systematic Thanks for the serious reply. All in comp was $60k. I am based in the DC area. It’s a four person shop so I wear many hats. Main responsibilities include: 1. Monitor investment products on a quarterly basis regarding performance, fees and risk-adjusted returns. 2. Prepare performance information for client presentations and quarterly reviews. 3. Rebalance accounts to model portfolios. 4. Execute the firm’s trading operations. 5. I construct and maintain the firm’s composites. 6. Research (with no particular focus). Any time the PMs are curious about something, they’ll ask me to dig in and report findings back to them. Brief Background: graduated in 2008 with a degree in economics and I am a CFA Level 3 Candidate. I was part of the “founding team” (the two PMs and myself) and was instrumental in setting up the firm’s operational infrastructure. This was a lot of grunt work but I believe it has been essential to the firm’s solid performance for the last 1.5 years. Do you think the comp is in line with my contribution or am I being over/under-compensated? Thanks again,
Comp doesn’t sound horribly off base to me, but you’re right in thinking, “Hey, what about an increase in the near future?” My suggestion would be to go read “How to make $1,000 a minute”, a book on salary negotiation. Terrible title, but a really good read. If your bosses are Wall-street lifers they’ll know the importance of comp being competitive. My suggestion is only that you should have the conversation when you are: -extremely prepared (if you need to type notes for yourself, that is A-OK in my opinion) -your personal stock should be at an all-time high (meaning you just kicked butt at something that everyone knows about) -your bosses need to be relaxed (don’t pick day of/before a huge client presentation) If any of these things are NOT in place, don’t have the conversation. Also, don’t be afraid to highlight what’s changed since you’ve started. i.e. 'Well, when you hired me, I was zero exp, working 45 hrs a week, I’m now 2 yrs exp and lvl 3 candidate working closer to 60 hrs/wk…".
Here is an article about salary negotiation: http://www.references.be/carriere/la-négociation-du-salaire Although you will notice it’s in French I am convinced that google translation does a good job (I quickly checked and seems ok) 2 points made by supersasface are really important: 1/ Preparation 2/ Timing Thanks to the size of the company you are in a good place to assess whether there is potential improvement (either growth in AUM) or on P&L. Easier to make your point in front of your boss. Unfortunately I cannot judge if 60k is good or not…but everyone wants more 
(or at least a yearly increase even only some percentage points)
$60K in DC is ballin brother
Thanks for the input Supersad and Pauluss! I will get my hands on that book. @Pauluss: I’v looked at those numbers and I def think it would help my case. Organic growth in AUM since inception is around 30%. Not sure what the P&L looks like since I dont have information on the cost side but there is a lot of operational leverage in this business so I assume its pretty solid given the rise in AUMs. Moreover, the PMs said “we had a good year in 2010 bla bla bla” when they offered the bonus to me. @ Supersad: Congrats on the new job!!
Thanks for the input Supersad and Pauluss! I will get my hands on that book. @Pauluss: I’v looked at those numbers and I def think it would help my case. Organic growth in AUM since inception is around 30%. Not sure what the P&L looks like since I dont have information on the cost side but there is a lot of operational leverage in this business so I assume its pretty solid given the rise in AUMs. Moreover, the PMs said “we had a good year in 2010 bla bla bla” when they offered the bonus to me. @ Supersad: Congrats on the new job!!
I would say your comp is pretty fair. Are you responsible for any of the AUM? $1B for company thats only 1.5 yrs old is pretty impressive. If you’re a “founder” and are responsible for some of the AUM you should be entitled to some equity, IMO. Other than that, your total comp is pretty good for what you do. What’s your base? You might want to try to get 5-10k more if you guys have some money to go around.