Johnson Associates, Inc.

2024 on track for a strong year for financial services compensation across most sectors (providing the market behaves).  https://lnkd.in/et9e8iD8 Michael Thrasher had a wide-ranging interview with our founder, Alan Johnson, in which they discussed projections for asset management compensation. The outlook is positive, especially after 2023 when bonuses were down. While incentives are projected to be up, Mr. Johnson said that firms may be selective in how much to reward top performers at the expense of others, resulting in some not unintended attrition for those they could do without. Passive products and fee pressures have impacted the profitability of traditional asset management. “There’s not clear linkage [between stock performance and profitability] that there was before” according to Mr. Johnson. He elaborated to say that fees charged by alternative managers have been “remarkably” stable. He also cautioned about the second half outlook, with volatility and uncertainty as top of mind.  #executivecompensation #humanresources #executivepay #assetmanagement #compensation #finance

After a two-year slump, double digit increases in bonuses projected for Wall Street investment bankers across several sectors.  https://lnkd.in/eRa-MeFX Kalyeena Makortoff covers our compensation estimates for The Guardian and writes about how US compensation may influence pay for bankers in Europe. Johnson Associates also cautioned about market volatility and potential economic softening for the remainder of the year impacting final payouts. #executivecompensation #humanresources #executivepay #investmentbanking #compensation #finance

Good news for Masters in Finance students.  The Financial Times spoke with Johnson Associates’ Chris Connors about the growth of salaries as compared with other fields, as seen in our data. Higher base salaries together with robust recruiting and inflation played a role. “The sector was hiring like crazy and the war for talent was very pronounced, with way higher turnover,” he says. “Since 2021, base salaries have risen far more than historical rates in financial services.” https://lnkd.in/eiDZQkus #executivecompensation #humanresources #executivepay #investmentbanking #compensation #finance

Johnson Associates analyzed 2024 proxy disclosures across a range of financial services firms to evaluate how pay trends for public firms have evolved for year-end 2023. One takeaway is the de-linking of proxy executive compensation from broader firm pools for most sectors. For more insights, including pay-mix over the last three years, how the market environment impacted one-time awards, etc., our analysis (and other reports) can be found at https://lnkd.in/eATT8DNU #executivecompensation #humanresources #executivepay #assetmanagement #investmentbanking #compensation

Johnson Associates opines on the state of hiring in light of the private equity industry comeback: Our Chris Connors was interviewed by Chris Cumming for The Wall Street Journal. Many private-equity firms are “a bit heavy on head count” after more than a decade of continual growth and hiring, said Chris Connors, a principal at Wall Street compensation consultant Johnson Associates. Now some firms are focused on “curtailing expenses and cost management,” in some cases by replacing senior with junior employees or not filling openings when workers leave, Connors said. https://lnkd.in/gz9VFbyE #compensation #executivepay #privateequity #totalrewards #humanresources #assetmanagement #hiring

Across financial services, job scope and pay levels have risen for the most senior back-office roles. Large insurance and financial services companies are prioritizing world-class talent in functions such as legal, finance, operations, and technology. Our Chris Connors is interviewed by Cheryl Winokur Munk for P&C Specialist about why Chief Underwriting Officers are underrepresented from the list of Named Executive Officers at large commercial insurance carriers. "As businesses have become more diversified and global, some of the non-revenue-generating roles at insurers and other large financial services companies have gotten significantly larger and you're seeing this manifest in proxies," said Chris Connors, a principal at compensation consulting firm Johnson Associates. These roles often include chief legal officer, chief technology officer, chief operating officer and even chief asset management officer at some companies, he said.  https://lnkd.in/enq74Q7R #compensation #executivepay #underwriting #insurance #totalrewards #humanresources #finance

Good news for Wall Street incentives as bonuses soar for investment bankers on bond desks and traders. Johnson Associates’ Q1 2024 compensation estimates show double digit increases for debt underwriting (+15% to +25%), equity underwriting (+10% to +20%), and fixed income sales & trading (+10% to +20%). Katherine Doherty interviews our Founder, Alan Johnson for Bloomberg. “In general, employees in financial services should be pretty pleased: The amount of money they earn will match the results,” Alan Johnson, the firm’s managing director, said in an interview. “If you are in a business that manages costs, and generates significant profits, pay will follow along.” https://lnkd.in/eZ4WCGDZ   #compensation #executivepay #investmentbanking #totalrewards #humanresources #assetmanagement

The FTC ban on non-competes may cause elaborate changes to the non-disclosure and non-solicitation agreements at asset managers. Alan Johnson was interviewed by Anthony Rifilato for FundFire and spoke about the potential impact on lift-outs and recruiting to start new strategies. #compensation #executivepay #totalrewards #humanresources #assetmanagement #noncompete

Cautious optimism about 2024 and a lookback at the difficult 2023 for investment banking dealmakers feature in LinkedIn's The Financial News where Stephanie Forshee quotes Johnson Associates, Inc.'s Alan Johnson and Chris Connors. Disappointment about 2023 bonuses for bankers contrasted with executive compensation for financial services, where corporate objectives or a “scorecard approach” determined incentive pay.   https://lnkd.in/gUbgGtJS #compensation #executivepay #investmentbanking #totalrewards #humanresources

As performance-based units (PSUs) become a more sizable percentage of executive compensation, both setting and forecasting performance goals has become more challenging for the financial sector. Short-term market turbulence, consolidation, changing fee levels and other issues work to increase uncertainty. Frederic Lee interviewed Alan Johnson on these complexities along with the cautiously optimistic outlook for 2024 in Agenda. https://lnkd.in/eEqa8UYd #compensation #executivepay #totalrewards #humanresources