HEDGE FUND COMPENSATION DECLINES ON PERFORMANCE VOLATILITY

Senior Traders see largest declines

Hedge fund compensation declined by approximately ten percent on average across varied functional roles in 2011, according to the 2012 edition of the Glocap Hedge Fund Compensation Report. The compensation data released today shows a wide dispersion of compensation, between and within firms, driven by a number of variables including role, seniority/experience, fund size and performance for the year.

The total hedge fund industry surpassed previous record levels of total capital under management in both 1Q and 2Q11, reaching $2.04 trillion, before declining sharply in 3Q as the hedge fund industry posted the fourth-worst performance quarter in history, with the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite declining by -6.2 percent. The growth in assets under management led to an increase in overall management fee income that partially offset the decrease in incentive fee income. In addition, despite 3Q performance, the percentage of funds reaching their performance high watermarks in the trailing 12 months continued to rise, exceeding 70 percent as of the end of 3Q11, which further stabilized the pool of income available for compensation.