McLagan has an extensive product line and consulting practice geared to the needs of the equities business.
Our team of experts is available to advise clients on a broad spectrum of topics, including compensation plan design, business benchmarking, market share and cost savings.
Our compensation surveys include salary, cash incentive and long-term awards for sales, trading, origination and quant / structuring roles across all products: cash, derivatives, equity finance / prime brokerage, electronic execution and commission management. Over 100 firms participate in our annual equity compensation benchmarking surveys globally.
Our Gauge product uses detailed general ledger data to assess a firm’s competitive position across a broad array of performance metrics covering equity divisions and products, including revenue, staffing, costs and capital.
The equity market share study (Revenue GPS) helps securities firms benchmark revenues received from the largest institutional investors worldwide. With Revenue GPS, participating firms can benchmark these revenues relative to scale, spend and footprint.
Custom Methods of Pay Studies are conducted across various types of firms (e.g., global banks, regional broker / dealers, independent research providers and electronic distribution platforms) providing data on clients’ incentive funding approaches, payout rates, allocation of awards, mix of pay, and utilization of long-term incentives.
McLagan’s coverage is global, with offices in Stamford, Chicago, New York, London, Japan, Hong Kong, India and Dubai, across sales and trading, origination and research.
- Assisted a small boutique U.S. equities broker dealer in developing a revenue plan which included the impact that the increase in revenue would have on headcount and compensation spend.
- Provided benchmark compensation pay levels to a large global institution on the appropriate incentive levels for their equities business heads.
- Commissioned to provide advice and market intelligence on commission payout rates in equity sales, trading and sales trading for a large U.S. regional broker dealer.
- Provided a headcount recommendation to a large broker dealer based on the respective size of the major equity research industry groups at other peer organizations and detailed the compensation cost implications.
- Designed the current equity business structure for a non-U.S. based global broker including headcount size, industry coverage and reporting relationships within the cash equities, derivatives, prime brokerage and electronic trading business units.
- Assisted in the integration process of two large European-based firms that were combining their equity platforms by analyzing account overlap, right-sizing the business structure, scale and footprint of the new organization and identifying revenue opportunities.
- A large U.S. regional institutional broker wished to develop a five-year growth plan that would secure a stronger position and greater market share within the U.S. equities business. McLagan was engaged to help develop reasonable revenue and market share targets, analyze areas of greatest revenue upside within the market, and provide guidance on the resources (e.g., staffing, compensation costs, etc.) needed to achieve the established objectives.
