July 7, 2026
Today, we released the first in a series of insights from the 2026 Alternatives Compensation & Carry Survey.
For the past several years, Allvue has surveyed finance and HR leaders at alternative investment firms to better understand how they are managing carried interest and compensation programs. This year, we expanded this effort by partnering with Major, Lindsey & Africa (MLA), an executive recruiting firm with deep experience across the private markets talent landscape.
The rationale for this partnership was simple: we wanted to understand multiple perspectives. On one side, we wanted to look at how finance and HR leaders are designing and managing carry and compensation programs, just as we’ve done in the past. On the other, we wanted to explore how carry plan participants experience those programs, including how they perceive transparency, fairness, communication, and long-term value. This is where MLA’s deep expertise and industry presence complement Allvue’s.
Together, these perspectives offer a more complete view of where the market stands today and how expectations are evolving. This report is the first in a three-part series based on the findings from the 2026 Alternatives Compensation & Carry Management Survey, with additional insights from MLA to follow.
This post explores what has changed, and what has remained constant, in the year since we last took the pulse of the market. Today, the market continues to face many of the same questions, but with greater urgency. Firms are facing pressure on several fronts, including (1.) competing for talent in a demanding market, (2.) managing carry and compensation programs that are becoming broader and more complex, and (3.) navigating challenging market conditions that make it harder to forecast outcomes and communicate the value of long-term incentives.
Access to Carry Programs Continues to Grow
One trend that stood out in last year’s survey was the expectation that carry programs would continue to expand, with 47% of firms saying they planned to grow their carry pools. This year, 49% of respondents said growth in the number of carry participants will be among their top three operational challenges over the next 12 to 24 months, reinforcing the staying power of this trend.
To be clear, this expansion represents a meaningful step forward for employees who previously may not have had access to carry-based compensation. Broader participation gives more employees the opportunity to share in the long-term growth of the firms they help build. At the same time, we also want to understand not only whether firms are broadening access, but how much they are investing in communicating the value of this industry-specific compensation model.
Complexity Continues to Mount
Last year, we found that many firms were already managing a complex mix of fund structures and incentives. As a result, administrators were often left juggling a web of bespoke arrangements. This year’s results confirm that the complexity is not going away.
Increasingly, these challenges are compounded by the ways in which managers seek to facilitate participation. This includes co-investment opportunities, but also accommodations and benefits such as tax advance payments, cashless arrangements, and financing options designed to make participation more accessible.
At the same time, firms must also navigate market conditions that can make it harder to forecast returns. This matters because forecasting can be a valuable tool for helping employees understand the potential value of their compensation. In more challenging environments, employee perceptions can be a challenge. Key contributors may be working harder to generate returns at precisely the moment when those returns are more difficult to realize, complicating how they view the balance between risk, effort, and reward.
The Employee Experience Remains Uneven
What may stand out most is how unevenly employees experience carry and compensation programs across firms. While access to carry-based compensation appears to be broadening, many firms still have work to do when it comes to transparency, education, and communication.
More than half of surveyed firms still do not offer Total Rewards Statements (TRS) to employees participating in carried interest compensation programs. And just over one-third say they are actively investing in education and training to help employees understand how these programs work. As more employees gain access to carry, these programs may also become more important.
Excel Still Remains a Bottleneck
Last year, we found that 60% of firms still relied on spreadsheets to manage carry administration—a risky approach given increasing demands for compliance, transparency, accuracy, and scale.
This year, that number has barely budged. Fifty-eight percent of surveyed firms report that carry administration is still primarily handled in Excel, suggesting that many firms continue to rely on manual processes even as their programs become more complex and participation expands.
The Value of Benchmarking Data Holds Steady
Last year, we found that nearly half of firms (46%) were using market context to reinforce compensation decisions by sourcing benchmarking data to inform their practices.
This year, that figure has held mostly steady. Market compensation benchmarks remain the most influential source of input for carry and compensation decisions, but the broader findings suggest that many firms still have room to make their programs more data-driven.
Two findings stood out in particular. First, 51% of firms were reluctant to agree that they take a data-driven approach to compensation management. Second, employee sentiment and feedback appear to play a relatively limited role in shaping compensation decisions. That gap matters: as competition for talent intensifies, firms may need to look beyond market benchmarks alone and more actively incorporate employee perspectives into how they design, communicate, and evolve their compensation programs.
Download the Carry and Compensation Survey Report
Ready to see how private markets firms are approaching carry and compensation in a changing market? Download the full report to explore the data, peer benchmarks, and practical elements of program design.
The full 2026 Carry & Compensation Survey Report is available for download now.
