Welcome to our fifth 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 282 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. 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

Overview 

Our 2024 compensation survey of marketing and investor relations professionals in the private credit/equity, hedge fund, and real assets industries is set in the context of a fundraising market that has continued to be challenging, with the amount of new assets raised trending down. 

Performance at hedge funds in particular, however, has been broadly positive through 2023 and 2024, although the industry has seen small net outflows, leading to a difficult fundraising environment.

However, compensation continues to trend modestly up across asset classes, and respondents remain optimistic regarding their firm performance. 

In terms of talent, we have seen a moderate trend toward candidates seeking roles in which they can raise capital for locked-up funds, rather than evergreen strategies. We have also begun to see that hiring managers are increasingly valuing experience in selling separately managed accounts and co-investment opportunities. However, demand for credit fundraisers remains steady, with asset-backed lending an area of some focus for sales and product specialist hires.

Key findings

From 2022 to 2024, respondents overall reported increases year over year in terms of base and bonus compensation across asset classes.

• Respondents in private equity/credit reported 2023 average total cash compensation of $945,000, up from $885,000 in 2022. 
• Respondents at hedge funds reported 2023 average total cash compensation of $1,093,000, up from $998,000 in 2022. 
• Respondents at real assets firms reported 2023 average total cash compensation of $1,105,000, slightly up from $1,063,000 in 2022. 

Looking ahead, respondents were generally positive about their expectations for their total cash compensation this year compared with 2023. 

To read the full report, download the PDF.

About the authors

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