Guaranteed bonuses when moving laterally to a competitor?
Have an offer from a bulge bracket competitor. Negotiated a total comp number but offer letter only has base salary in it. Bank is saying bonus is “in the system” and will be met on a handshake agreement basis. They also told me no banks will write the bonus number as a guarantee in the offer letter. Any experience with this? Am I being screwed over? EDIT: what happens if you move mid year ie 3-4 months before the bonus payout? Pro rated or do you get paid the negotiated amount?
I also got the same response, a handshake agreement for bonus, and hr said there is no way they would go back on that promised bonus. I think you should trust their words.
That was at GS?
There is Japan bank MUFG in US?
Not uncommon. I wouldn’t stress about it.
Same at JP when I joined. Just got the “bonus included” in writing via email from HR but not a number.
Can you tell me what did the email say in it? I can perhaps try to get something along similar lines from HR
No bank would guarantee a bonus. Also TC or GTFO
Some banks will give you guaranteed bonus (mine has it). I’ve also had it where it was verbal and target. But I wouldn’t worry about it.
what happens if you move mid year ie 3-4 months before the bonus payout? Pro rated or do you get paid the negotiated amount?
You won’t get paid out. It has to be in the bank account for you to actually have it. Most contracts stipulate that if you leave before X date, you forfeit bonus. Unless you somehow get a contract that says you earn prorata bonus, but I’ve never seen that
It's mostly prorated for the first yr. Infact some banks also don't pay you bonuses if you join in the last quarter, so I would ask clearly about that.
I just accepted an offer @ RBC and only the base was in contract, pushed for soft TC hard but no verbal agreement of bonus either… but more of a “nod in agreement”
Pretty sure they can never give you a written "guarantee" explicitly for legal reasons. The offer letter can reference a figure but not sure how common that is though.
But they can, and do, include "target bonuses" in offer letters.
What happens if you move mid year ie 3-4 months before the bonus payout? Pro rated or do you get paid the negotiated amount?