Welcome to our third annual North American Alternative Asset Management Marketing and Investor Relations Professional Compensation Survey. 

Together with our surveys of private equity investment and operating professionals, this report provides a comprehensive picture of the compensation that North American executives in the hedge fund, real estate, and private equity industries currently receive. 

For this report, Heidrick & Struggles compiled compensation data from a survey of 333 alternative asset management marketing and investor relations professionals in North America who are employed in private equity, hedge funds, or real estate. 

We hope you enjoy reading the report, which remains the only one of its kind. As always, suggestions are welcome, so please feel free to contact us—or your Heidrick & Struggles representative—with questions and comments.

Alternative asset management market context

This year’s survey of compensation of marketing and investor relations professionals in the hedge fund, real estate investment, and private equity industries is set in the context of a fundraising market that has remained robust for the past two years. At the time of writing, we are beginning to expect a slowdown, though evidence is limited as of yet. 

Though the market has been robust, demand for fundraisers with proven track records has only increased, and we have seen a premium being paid for the best. We are also seeing firms diversify their limited partner bases and seek out alternative asset management professionals for more specialized roles—for example, those that are channel or region specific. 

On the venture side, funds have particularly been seeking investor relations experts. For a time, there was a concern within hedge funds that people were moving from the liquid alternative assets to digital assets; we expect digital assets will continue to be a growth area, though fundraising may lag, specifically for hedge funds or cryptocurrency funds. 

On the whole, however, across these functions, we believe that fundraising is the best place to attract diverse talent. As firms continue to diversify their products and markets, the need to build out investor relations fundraising teams and hire specialists can suggest a demand for a more diverse pool of talent. In addition, in the private capital space in particular (as for hedge funds in previous years), we are seeing a younger bench of talent with fundraising experience and the motivation to take on senior roles. 

Compensation by gender varies in the three sectors, with the reported compensation closest to parity in hedge funds and least equal in real estate.

More than a quarter of respondents reported more than $5 billion in new money raised in 2021, with 16% raising more than $10 billion. Only 10% of respondents reported raising no new money, a decrease from last year’s 14%, and only 5% of respondents reported no new net assets raised in 2021, a decrease from last year’s 8%. 

In terms of new assets, about one-third of respondents (34%) reported raising more than $500 million in new assets. This is higher than last year’s 25%.

Compensation trends, 2019–2021

Compensation for alternative asset marketing and investor relations professionals in all three sectors on the whole rises with seniority, though there is some variation. In both private equity/credit and real estate, those at the principal level reported higher median total cash compensation than those at the director level. This could be due to the fact that different firms weigh the titles differently, or perhaps there is a certain amount of title inflation. 

It’s also notable that total cash compensation at hedge funds and real estate firms with $1 billion to $5 billion in AUM outperformed that of firms in the same sectors with $5 billion to $10 billion in AUM, and at private equity firms, those with $5 billion to $10 billion in AUM slightly outperformed that of firms with $10 billion to $30 billion in AUM. This could indicate that the slightly smaller firms have to pay a premium to retain talent.

Viewed by industry sector for 2021, professionals in hedge funds surpassed the other two sectors in median total cash compensation,¹ while compensation by gender varies in the three sectors, with the reported compensation closest to parity (though still unequal) in hedge funds and least equal in real estate.

For full compensation data, download the full report.

About the authors

Graham Beatty (gbeatty@heidrick.com) is a partner in Heidrick & Struggles’ New York office and is a member of the Financial Services Practice; he is also the Americas sector leader for real estate.

Paul Charles (pcharles@heidrick.com) is a partner in the San Francisco office and a member of the Financial Services and Technology practices.

John Hindley (jhindley@heidrick.com) is a partner in the New York office and a member of the Financial Services Practice.

References

¹ Median total cash compensation figures are not always the total of median base and median bonus figures, because not all respondents received a bonus.