Bond Trading Seen as Bonus Bright Spot While Others Disappoint

“You’ll hear about some multimillion-dollar trader that got some multimillion-dollar increase in pay while you got less pay,” Alan Johnson, president and founder of Johnson Associates, said in an interview. “You’re not going to be able to make everybody happy and, unfortunately, this year you’re going to make many people unhappy. There are limited funds…

Read More

Layoffs, Shrunken Bonuses Coming in Asset Management

The largest private equity funds have enormous amounts of cash to invest, but face portfolio company defaults. Alan Johnson, head of the compensation and consulting firm, said PE outfits benefit from leverage when markets are up. “Now they’re on the other side of leverage and it hurts,” Johnson told Institutional Investor. “I won’t have a…

Read More

Asset Managers Are Prepping Layoffs and Slashed Bonuses as the Pandemic Pressures the Already-squeezed Industry. Here Are the Jobs Most at Risk

Managing director Alan Johnson said employees on the support and operations side of the business, like those involved in processing and lower-level technology functions, will likely be most vulnerable. The dim projections underscore how asset managers are under pressure as they navigate falling fees for products and thinning profit margins in a highly uncertain economic…

Read More

Another Down Year Seen for Manager Bonuses

“It’s not just where the markets are, it’s the fees you collect,” said Alan Johnson, managing director of Johnson Associates, in a phone interview. “We have these systemic changes within the market. We’ve moved from active to passive; we’ve moved to ETFs.” Mr. Johnson added that the decline is only “moderately worse” than estimates made…

Read More

Trump’s Visa Ban May Shake Up Fund Shops’ Hiring

Most employees who receive H-1B visas are hired to fill roles at asset managers that require technology skills, says Alan Johnson, managing director at Johnson Associates. BlackRock and Fidelity were each recruiting for tech jobs last year. Large firms with sophisticated recruitment teams are generally more likely to use the visa program, Johnson adds. “The…

Read More

Traders’ Pay Outlook Brightens, if They Survived Latest Job Cuts

Bonuses for both equity and fixed-income traders could jump as much as 20% this year, according to compensation consultant Alan Johnson, the managing director of Johnson Associates Inc. “This is their heyday” after several years of virtually no change in compensation, Johnson said Wednesday in an interview. “Sales and trading now is mainly a customer…

Read More