Welcome to our sixth 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 186 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.

Methodology

In an online survey fielded in the fall of 2025, we asked participants to provide their compensation data for 2023, 2024, and 2025. All data collected was self-reported and has been aggregated to evaluate trends in cash base salary and bonus compensation packages.

Market context

In today’s alternative asset management landscape, raising assets has become significantly more challenging. With less capital coming from investors, competition has intensified, creating a vicious cycle: firms are holding assets longer because selling often doesn’t make economic sense. But longer hold periods delay returns to investors, leaving them with less capital to reinvest. As a result, firms aren’t seeing the gains they want, reinforcing the tendency to keep holding.

In this environment, firms have become far more focused on DPI and realized liquidity, and the scarcity of liquidity has directly contributed to continued growth in the secondaries market. Fundraising timelines have also stretched. Most managers now expect longer cycles and are using co-investments more frequently to improve economics and maintain greater control over capital deployment.

Given how difficult it is to raise assets, firms are placing increased emphasis on sales capabilities and data-driven performance metrics. While hedge funds have long operated this way, the private capital world is now catching up. Credit fundraising remains especially active, driving sustained demand for professionals in that area. One clear result is the emergence of the “COO of fundraising” as a distinct and increasingly common role. At larger firms, specialization continues to deepen, with teams now organized more finely by geography and distribution channel.

Mobility within the industry has become more constrained, as non-compete and non-solicit agreements have grown longer and more restrictive over the past five years. To retain strong performers, many firms are promoting people to managing directors      earlier. Title usage can also vary by firm, creating additional inconsistency in what titles signal about seniority.

Despite the challenges, more than three-quarters of respondents reported improved firm performance in 2024, and nearly all expect another strong year ahead.

Download the full report PDF.

About the authors

Paul Charles (pcharles@heidrick.com) is a partner in the global Financial Services and Technology practices; he is based in the San Francisco office.

John Hindley (jhindley@heidrick.com) is a partner in the Financial Services Practice; he is based in the New York office.