I second skillionaire’s point - I thought one thing about being as asset consultant is the work/life balance. I worked at a global asset consulting firm in Australia. There are long hours during quarterly but overall, not crazy hours. It depends on the company structures themselves - we had manager research and consulting separated. So manager researcher focus on conducting DD and product report. Consultants deal primarily with SAA and portfolio construction. Regarding SAA, you determine the performance objective, timeframe and the asset mix to achieve a decent probability of meeting objective. Portfolio construction involves blending funds together. Surely different asset classes requires different focus e.g. style for equities and type of risk premium captured with fixed income etc. I actually changed job because I don’t like to deal with clients…at the end of the day, you’re providing advice and they don’t have to implement it. You can have brilliant idea but it got turn into rubbish by IC…oh well.
leafsrule Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Consulting? Forget it. > > Those who CAN, do (ie. actually manage money). > > Those who CAN’T, consult. That’s actually fine with me, I want to be in the asset management business but I don’t like stock research…Maybe from my experience working with portfolio managers who are talented but have very limited social skills. Having worked both on client service and research side, I prefer the former.
what are the big names of Investment consulting firms in the US and what kind of people are they looking for? it seems like a job tailored for Charterholders…
Mercer and Watson Wyatt are top tier followed up by Cambridge Associates and Ennis. CFA will help you a ton, prior client service experience for consultants, and experience within a db, dc, endowment/foundation, FoF, or buy-side experience.
There are smaller consulting firms as well but the big names are Watson Wyat , Mercer , Towers perrin , Hewitt and Brockhouse & Cooper .
no one mentioned Russell? btw, Tower and Watson merged a while ago… http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124623144442366139.html Mercer FTW!!!
sanka Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > You either love investment consulting or hate it. > Here’s my experience: > > Pros > - Steep learning curve (some may consider it a > Cons > - long hours > - long hours > - pay’s not that great as consulting margins are > generally thin > - negotiating fees with clients > - first couple of years was spent doing a lot of > number crunching, which can be tedious when u say pay’s not great, could u plz give a ball park figure as to what will be the avg base pay for someone with no IC exp. and is a L3 candidate or maybe has cleared L3?
chirag_shah Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > sanka Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > You either love investment consulting or hate > it. > > Here’s my experience: > > > > Pros > > - Steep learning curve (some may consider it a > > > Cons > > - long hours > > - long hours > > - pay’s not that great as consulting margins > are > > generally thin > > - negotiating fees with clients > > - first couple of years was spent doing a lot > of > > number crunching, which can be tedious > > > > when u say pay’s not great, could u plz give a > ball park figure as to what will be the avg base > pay for someone with no IC exp. and is a L3 > candidate or maybe has cleared L3? Smaller city = 50-60k Bigger city = 50-70k Maybe 0-20% bonus each one. Max out at 200k
I’m in equity research and would be happy to share any insight I can, but I too had a few questions about investment consultants. Traditionally our firm has dealt more directly with clients but we have someone coming in to perform due diligence. Can any of you vets provide a quick list of Do’s/Don’ts that you look for at a manager or any other advice? Thanks!