What's the key difference between IB's AM departments and Buyside AM?

I am an undergrad studentmajoring in Economics. I will finish anMSFdegree in the end of 2023. After reading hundreds of posts onWSO, I figured thatAMis the most suitable domain of finance for me. However, I didn't see much posts about the differences between IB'sAMdepartment and BuysideAM. I am a bit confused becauseIBseems to be on thesell-sideandAMseems to be on thebuy-side. Please share you insight. I will sincerely appreciate that.

Comments (23)

9mo
Impractical., what's your opinion? Comment below:

Thank you for your insight!

I wonderif the buysidecharacteristics in theAMdepartment make it much more difficult to break into than other departments, such asIBDor S&T. For my understanding, buyside financial institutions seem to prefer people who have two or three years of work experience? If you know a bit on that, would you please elaborate a bit more?

9mo
rickle, what's your opinion? Comment below:

The difference is primarily tied to culture and priority. Within a bank,AMis a business line that will have a range of importance based upon the bank. That effects resourcing, prioritizing, etc. Not unusual for a bank to buy or sell that expertise vs building organically. When you're dealing with sbuysideAMshop, that's what they do. All the resources go to that business (the managing of and distributing that managed money). Do they buy and sell of JV, sure, but in the context of growing their business. Whereas in a bank, each business line needs to compete for internal dollars and justify their existence.

9mo
Impractical., what's your opinion? Comment below:

Thank you for sharing some insight here!

I plan to (try to) passCFAlevel 1by the end of this year. Many people I know told me thatCFAwould not help me to get an interview at a decent fund or an investment bank. Whereas quite a few people informed me thatCFAis a must-have forER/WM/AMin bothbuyside and sell side. I know that both groups of people are not giving me sufficiently accurate depiction of the industry, but I still wish I can gain some advises and understanding from you. Do you have any idea about this problem?

9mo
rickle, what's your opinion? Comment below:

If you're looking to be in anAMinvestor role (or EQ / Credit analyst at an AM) , theCFAis highlyregarded. Some firms will require it. If you're looking to start the path of working as a PM in theAMworld, aCFAis pretty common and highly regraded. Otherwise, unless the firm requires / prefers it as a show of interest, it's not necessary.

9mo
maplesyrup334, what's your opinion? Comment below:

I understand the revenue percentage fromAMis way lower like you said. I'm just comparing apples to apples so theirAMarm to capital, fidelity. I'm not talking wealthmanagement likePWM. Morgan Stanley aum is 3.3 trillion andgsis 2 trillion.

  • Associate 3inIB-M&A
9mo

看到我的第一个答案,也收入与纯粹的解放军y entities, history, pay, etc. Another way to put it - putting all branding asides, would you (an LP) want to buy a watch (or an investing service) from a pure play entity like Vacheron that specialize in their craft and does it to the highest quality, or a Montblanc which sells everything including watches and more known for their pens?

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9mo
rickle, what's your opinion? Comment below:

You're kind of answering your own question with theEVacquisition. They didn't organically build the expertise, they bought it. They could just as easily sell it if they choose to go in a different direction.EVis simply acting as a fee diversification lever. I wouldn't want to be there when/if the regulators change the model. Also, because of all this the culture of MS is MS. They are anIBwith other fee arms. Don't want to get in to a whole active vs passive mgr discussion (at least on this thread), but what real expertise does MS have in actively managing money. You previously mentioned something about it's all just index tracking. No No No. In up markets it may appear that way, but in volatile times, expertise in active mgmt is very important.Indexing is okfor a sleeve but by definition, you can't drive alpha that way. You need other levers. Maybe they have it. I don't know. But I do know it exists at Capital Group, Wellington, PIMCO, Fido. If you look at PIMCO as an example (yesFIis their forte), they outperform their tracking indexes 92% of the time over a 5 yr period. That's huge! They also have "equity like" funds that outperform the s/p 500 (after fees) by using the index and actively managing derivatives and aFIsleeve within the fund to grab alpha. Great for qualified money as the alpha grab is largely in dividends. You don't get alot of stuff likethat at GSAM, MS, etc. A big chunk of those bank divisions are actually tied to WM, notAM( I realize they have their own funds too). Don't know the answer to this and would be interesting to learn who theIBPBers use for mgrs of client money, internal or independentAMshops). I suspect A LOT of the latter.

  • Associate 3inIB-M&A
9mo

Look I gave you a straightforward answer. This is just how the professionals in the finance community generally sees pure plays vsBBowned asset managers. Nobody in their right mind would take an offer at MS Eaton Vance vs a PIMCO. You obviously seem topreferBBsso in that case good on you lad. Couldn't be more wrong on the tracking part, but I'll let somebody else step in. You're thinking of aBlackRock. All of Cap, Fidelity, Wellington, PIMCO primarily do active management.

9mo
marketMergerMaddie, what's your opinion? Comment below:

Something that I think is worth adding here as well is that many who have worked for both a bank's Asset Manager and a pure play Asset Manager find that their careers grow more quickly, their compensation is higher, and they contribute more to the overall business.

It sucks to work for a cost center. Period. Many banks view theirasset managementarms as an added product to a fully diversified suite of financial products, not a significant revenue generating entity, not something that is defined as their core business. This means that every cost that can be cut from your business will be.

Nobody wants to work for a cost center.

9mo
marketMergerMaddie, what's your opinion? Comment below:

One thing to mention here about working for an independentAMis that you'll always be prioritized and your work will represent far more value to the company on the whole than if you work for a bank'sAMarm. You'll have far more resources and be able to do far more things without having to worry about the bank trying to keep costs ultra-low internally

8mo
rickle, what's your opinion? Comment below:

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8mo
marketMergerMaddie, what's your opinion? Comment below:

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