(Opalesque) Throughout 2016, media coverage of declining compensation and personnel reductions at hedge funds has been overblown. This year, the widening YTD performance gap will translate to large increases in bonuses for top-performing funds and decreases in bonuses for bottom-performing funds especially for upper level management and key investment professionals whose compensation is more closely tied to their fund’s performance and overall assets under management. Across the board, non-investment professional roles will show salary increases, albeit at a modest, single-digit level.
Based on proprietary compensation data from CompIQ and performance data from HFR, 2016 will be the year of haves and have nots for investment professionals.