Allvue Systems, LLC (“Allvue”), a leading technology provider for the private capital markets, today released its 2026 Alternatives Compensation & Carry Survey, conducted in partnership with Major, Lindsey & Africa. Half of the alternative investment firms surveyed admit to not managing compensation with the same rigor applied to other core business functions. This shortfall puts talent retention at risk as competition for experienced industry professionals intensifies.
The research reveals a significant gap between firms’ talent priorities and their operational readiness. Just 11% of firms say their carry administration capabilities are ahead of peers, even as competition for investment professionals intensifies and expectations for transparency continue to rise. Many firms still rely on manual processes, lack data-driven compensation practices, and provide employees with limited visibility into compensation and carry programs, making it harder to attract, motivate, and retain top talent.
“This year’s survey highlights a growing danger for private market firms. Carry and compensation management is just not being taken seriously enough at a time when talent is increasingly mobile and demanding,” said Richard Change, Head of FirmView at Allvue Systems. “Asset managers and GPs want to understand how their contribution connects to their compensation, and firms that cannot clearly communicate this will lose ground to those that can. At Allvue, we believe that integrating compensation and carry into a single, transparent view is a critical driver of talent acquisition and performance that should not be ignored.”
“When we advise clients on hiring senior leaders in the alternative asset industry, compensation is about far more than salary and bonus,” added Allison Rosner, Managing Director with MLA’s In-House Counsel Recruiting group. “Candidates increasingly evaluate how firms structure, communicate, and align carry and long-term incentives with the value they help create. As competition for top talent intensifies, the participant experience will become just as important as program design. Our forthcoming survey will provide that perspective.”
The employee experience gap
As competition for talent intensifies, employees increasingly expect greater transparency into how compensation and carry decisions are made. While many firms are making progress in formalizing certain aspects of carry administration, the survey found that many firms are falling short or underinvesting in delivering the level of transparency, education, and visibility that employees expect.
- Fewer than half (43%) of firms provide Total Rewards Statements (TRS), which give employees a consolidated view of salary, bonus, carry, and co-investment.
- Only a third (36%) say they invest in education and training programs on carried interest compensation
- Less than a quarter (24%) offer formal feedback forums on carry programs, while only one in six (16%) say that employee sentiment is a meaningful input into compensation decisions.
The research also found that over half (56%) of firms rely on discretionary carry to some extent, meaning that, for the majority of participants, carry outcomes depend on individual judgment rather than defined criteria. That creates a perception problem: employees are more likely to question how decisions are made and whether awards are applied consistently or fairly, potentially undermining trust and compounding an already fragile operational picture.
As competition for talent intensifies and expectations for communication and transparency rise, improving the employee experience may become a more important differentiator for firms seeking to retain and motivate key talent.
Manual processes and weak data limit compensation and carry programs
The survey found that many firms have yet to build the operational foundation needed to support modern compensation and carry programs. Obstacles including manual processes, fragmented data, and inconsistent compensation frameworks continue to limit firms’ abilities to deliver accurate, transparent, and scalable employee experiences.
- Survey feedback points to manual operations as a key driver of this gap, with 58% of firms still relying on Excel spreadsheets to administer carry.
- Across compensation planning (such as how firms set and plan compensation or benchmark against competitors), fewer than one in five (18%) believe they lead their peers, more than half (51%) cannot confirm their compensation practices are data-driven, and 42% lack well-defined compensation bands by role or level.
As firms expand participation in carry programs and introduce more sophisticated compensation structures, these operational shortcomings become increasingly difficult to manage. Reliance on spreadsheets makes it challenging to provide employees with timely, consolidated views of their compensation, while inconsistent data and compensation practices limit firms’ ability to make transparent, equitable, and informed decisions.
Firms expect carry and compensation programs to respond to complexity, competition, and broader market factors in the year ahead
Market dynamics, growing complexity, and talent expectations are adding new pressure to compensation and carry programs. As these factors become more impactful, firms that delay operational improvements may find it harder to align incentives, retain top talent, and respond effectively to changing market conditions.
Firms identified the following as most likely to shape their compensation and carry programs in the near term:
- Increased competition for talent across firms and strategies (47%)
- Rising expectations among talent for greater communication and transparency (46%)
- Difficulty in obtaining returns, and the challenge of aligning incentives with effort as well as outcomes (35%)
The full 2026 Alternatives Compensation & Carry Survey report provides additional insights into the way alternative investment firms are engaging employees and facilitating carry programs.
For more insights and to access the complete report, download it here.
Notes to editor
This report is the first in a three-part insights series exploring compensation and carried interest trends in the alternative investment industry. The second report will feature survey findings from Major, Lindsey & Africa, gathered from carry program participants, primarily within the legal community. The series will conclude with a webinar comparing perspectives across carry plan administrators and carry plan participants.
About Allvue Systems
Allvue Systems provides actionable insights, benchmarks, and automation through an AI-powered platform that unifies data and streamlines workflows across the private investment lifecycle. With more than $8.5T in assets, 21K funds, and 500 clients managed on Allvue, we help make private markets more transparent, connected, and efficient.
Allvue is purpose-built for alternative investment managers and our integrated suite of software enables firms of all sizes, including private equity, private debt and public credit managers, fund administrators, and banks, to enhance data accuracy and make smarter investment decisions. Headquartered in Miami, Allvue operates across North America, Europe, and India. Visit allvuesystems.com to learn more.
About FirmView
FirmView®, part of the Allvue Systems platform, supports fund-level and deal-by-deal carried interest structures, including detailed allocation profiles, vesting and forfeiture schedules, unrealized carry tracking and forecasting, distribution processing with withholdings, and e-signature workflows. It models complex LPA carry structures and produces employee-facing carry statements via a self-service participant portal — eliminating the spreadsheets and manual calculations that most PE firms currently use for carry management.
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