What is the highest salary in private equity?
These roles are also responsible for setting the overall investment strategy within a firm, which is a key undertaking. A managing director (MD) is the most senior position at a private equity firm.
Position Title | Typical Age Range | Base Salary + Bonus (USD) |
---|---|---|
Senior Associate | 26-32 | $250-$400K |
Vice President (VP) | 30-35 | $350-$500K |
Director or Principal | 33-39 | $500-$800K |
Managing Director (MD) or Partner | 36+ | $700-$2M |
These roles are also responsible for setting the overall investment strategy within a firm, which is a key undertaking. A managing director (MD) is the most senior position at a private equity firm.
In short, if you're at a top mega fund, then you can expect to get paid between $350-$400k per year. These numbers reflect total compensation paid to private equity associates in 2022.
Vice President Private Equity Salary. $115,000 is the 25th percentile. Salaries below this are outliers. $190,000 is the 75th percentile.
As of Feb 29, 2024, the average annual pay for a Private Equity Ceo in the United States is $82,146 a year. Just in case you need a simple salary calculator, that works out to be approximately $39.49 an hour. This is the equivalent of $1,579/week or $6,845/month.
The private equity space is one of the most competitive, but also offers some of the most lucrative careers in the world of finance.
The four largest publicly traded private equity firms are Apollo Global Management (APO), The Blackstone Group (BX), The Carlyle Group (CG), and KKR & Co. (KKR).
As of Feb 26, 2024, the average annual pay for a Private Equity Vice President in New York City is $174,414 a year. Just in case you need a simple salary calculator, that works out to be approximately $83.85 an hour. This is the equivalent of $3,354/week or $14,534/month.
As a vice president in private equity, you oversee deals and agreements, including an overall investment strategy and daily operations.
Is private equity a risky job?
Private equity funds are illiquid and are risky because of their high use of debt; furthermore, once investors have turned their money over to the fund, they have no say in how it's managed. In compensation for these terms, investors should expect a high rate of return.
Both careers demand exceptionally long hours, with investment banking often requiring analysts and associates to work 80 hours a week or more. Private equity generally offers a better work/life balance, but long hours may be required, particularly during the execution phase of a deal.
I'll tell you right now, private equity is a pretty hard and busy job. Any deal-oriented job is going to involve intense, short sprints and private equity is no exception. It's not quite at the level of investment banking hours, but you'll still be working a lot.
In the previous articles on the private equity career path and private equity salaries, we quoted a base salary + bonus range of $700K to $2 million USD for Partners. This compensation range is wide because so much depends on the fund size, your seniority, and the fund's performance.
How much does a Private Equity Director make in New York, NY? The average Private Equity Director salary in New York, NY is $198,711 as of January 26, 2024, but the salary range typically falls between $176,838 and $225,587.
The average during a busy time for associates and analysts is usually around ~60-70 hours per week. But it's all dependent on how many deals and investments are on the go. The above hours will vary based on if there's a live deal. Basically, everything goes on hold, and you need to be available 24/7.
Private equity firms make money through carried interest, management fees, and dividend recaps. Carried interest: This is the profit paid to a fund's general partners (GPs).
KKR's CEO is Joe Bae, appointed in Oct 2021, has a tenure of 2.42 years. total yearly compensation is $49.96M, comprised of 0.6% salary and 99.4% bonuses, including company stock and options. directly owns 2.07% of the company's shares, worth $1.81B.
U.S. nonprofits with highest paid CEOs 2022, by compensation
In 2022, the nonprofit organization in the U.S. with the highest paid CEO was Sentara Health, with an estimated salary of 33.22 million U.S. dollars. That year, seven of the top ten nonprofits with the highest paid CEOs belonged to the healthcare industry.
As many private equity firms specialize in certain sectors or asset classes, the experience gained can help with moving into another role in that sector. Private equity professionals also sometimes move into areas like hedge funds or corporate development, where their skills can bring some added value to the table.
Are people in private equity smart?
Private Equity Career Training
PE firms are small, tight-knit, and full of extremely smart and highly motivated people. As a starting point, the right career background is critical.
Fully agree with Pedro here - CFA is not necessary and doesn't really give you an advantage. Most of the work is CDD, as you point out, so as long as you can read and interpret financial statements, you're good.
While no job is perfect, it's true that private equity investing is one of the most attractive (and lucrative) career paths around. Private equity is attractive for a number of reasons: High prestige and compensation in private equity. Relatively better than investment banking hours.
Private equity is a core pillar of BlackRock's alternatives platform. BlackRock's Private Equity teams manage USD$41.9 billion in capital commitments across direct, primary, secondary and co-investments.
Private equity has a number of different levels and positions that look after the health and structure of the firm and overall deal flow strategies. Equity firms are usually managed by a hierarchy that starts at the bottom with analysts or interns and rises to the top with partners.
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