Being part of a private partnership is a blessing and a curse. General Partners who bought in early enjoy $1M+ salaries and generous benefits. On the flip side, newer associates are paid below market salaries to compensate. GP distributions are prioritized, leading the firm to under invest in key areas such as technology and human capital. As a result, the firm is 15+ years behind on technology and the average tenured associate may not know basic skills like PowerPoint, Excel, etc. Also, there is no accountability for associates who under perform, they get to stick around and drink coffee all day as long as they want. The firm is very slow to change. As return of capital to GPs is prioritized, the firm is very slow to adopt new ways of working and technology. The firm has been on a Transformation Journey since 2016 and I still have yet to see meaningful change. The firm values 'working in partnership'. This just means they rotate Partners around the firm that they never have time to develop in-depth knowledge of areas they oversee. As the firm never fires employees, a lot of GP's just stick around to collect multi-million dollar salaries while pretending to manage their respective Functions. The vision of the firm is unclear. Last year it was 'we want to be a bank and Human Centered Complete Wealth Management', and this year it's all about Purpose. Being a purpose led firm is just a way to justify the firm's high fees they charge clients. Last point - the organization structure makes no sense. We have functions, then we have Divisions, then we have 'Value Teams', yet we are segmented into High Net Worth, Core, On the Edge, and Canada. There is no published org structure, and in some areas, you have GPs reporting to other GPs, reporting to other GPs. There are a lot of generals and not a lot of foot soldiers.
