Wall Street pay is headed for change as more firms embrace alternative assets: Report

• BlackRock and Goldman Sachs have started paying some execs like private equity players.
• A new report predicts more such payouts due to booming demand for private assets.
• See how Goldman and BlackRock are using pay to compete in alternatives.

More Wall Street executives are getting paid like private equity bosses — a trend that's only going to continue as the lines between public and private markets blur, according to a new report.

Wall Street compensation firm Johnson Associates released a report this month predicting that more investment banks and traditional asset managers will start paying their executives with a form of compensation traditionally associated with the private equity industry.

Carried interest is a share of the profits earned by investment managers, often 20%, after a fund returns capital to investors. It's helped many private equity bosses reach billionaire status in recent decades.

"Many financial services firms see alternatives as a key area of growth for the future," said Bryan Liou, managing director at Johnson Associates. "They want to emphasize it, they want to signal to the market that they're serious about it."

He pointed to BlackRock, known for its bonds and ETFs business. The $12 trillion asset manager has been expanding into real estate, infrastructure, and other alternative assets in an effort to diversify into private investments.

Last year, BlackRock's board introduced a carried interest component to CEO Larry Fink's future pay for the first time, SEC documents show.

Goldman Sachs also paid CEO David Solomon and other C-Suite executives a portion of their compensation through carry last year for the first time ever.

BlackRock said it made the change to "align CEO compensation with the evolution of BlackRock's private markets platform." Goldman, in an SEC filing, said the change will help it compete for talent with alternative asset managers.

At both firms, carried interest payments were previously reserved for professionals who worked directly in private markets investing. As more firms look to expand their private markets offerings, however, interest in carried interest is expected to grow.

"I think this is the beginning of a longer-term trend," said Liou. "This is the first time we've seen it, but it's certainly not the last time we'll see it, and we certainly don't think it's going to be limited to just BlackRock and Goldman Sachs in the future."