This has been an incredibly useful thread. Thank you for posting.

Oh and I forgot a mandatory retirement contribution of $40K a year. So factor that in, too.

At DH's firm the buy in is $100K every year. We went on my health insurance but he still makes less net than before he made partner. The health insurance would have been something like $30K a year.

Lots of new partners at his firm have had to take out loans, especially if their spouses didn't have a high wage job. We're lucky that I have a good job but it has still been a negative change from a cash flow perspective.

Federal judges in GA get a massive office budget when they first get on the bench and never get a re-furbishment budget. You can tell which president nominated the judge from the carpet.

I think at my old firm the partners had to buy their own office furniture too, although they could get a "deal" on buying whatever was in their office...

Anonymous wrote:Helpful thread; thank you for posting. So partners are expected to foot their entire insurance bill at most firms? How much on average is it per year for a family plan?

It's not quite that they are expected to, it has to do with firm structure and tax law. At least in an LLP partners are owners of the firm and receive K-1s for their share of the profits of the firm. Partner benefits are not firm expenses. All retirement contributions, insurance, etc are self funded. Most marketing expenses are actually firm expenses but some firms do put limits on things like how many bar dues they will cover, how much CLE, what kind of marketing, etc. Those things become deductible business expenses at the individual level.

Any idea what the typical pre-tax income is for NEW partners at bigger firms and also for mid-tier firms? Thanks.

My impression is that there's also some not-technically-mandatory-but-expensive things that many new partners choose to do, like matching their own 401(k) contributions, hiring an accountant, donating more money to firm-supported charities (some firms have pooled charitable giving, others just ask partners to write checks; e.g. when a table says "sponsored by Doe & Doe, LLC," the firm didn't write a check, the partner who happened to support that charity did), maketing not directly reimbursable by the firm, etc.

Helpful thread; thank you for posting. So partners are expected to foot their entire insurance bill at most firms? How much on average is it per year for a family plan?

The difference between the firm paying a large portion of your health insurance premiums and you paying them in whole is significant.

Anonymous wrote:For budgeting purposes, every young partner I've talked to has said that between paying your own benefits and buying equity, they did not see a major immediate take home pay increase after making partner (but their net worth skyrocketed) and that the ones that made major purchases in the first year or two after making larger wished they had waited. (I realize these are 1 percenter problems, but just saying).

do the benefits matter if your firm is LLP or a PC? but if your income goes up by 200%, it should leave plenty of money lying around, even if you finance half of that increase over a 4-5 year period.

For budgeting purposes, every young partner I've talked to has said that between paying your own benefits and buying equity, they did not see a major immediate take home pay increase after making partner (but their net worth skyrocketed) and that the ones that made major purchases in the first year or two after making larger wished they had waited. (I realize these are 1 percenter problems, but just saying).

thanks, that is helpful.

Generally 25-40% of compensation. Smaller firms may be lower. Either bank financing to fund the whole amount up front or a percentage contribution each year until you've met the target number. So might be 5% of comp each year until you hit 25%. Of course as your comp increases so does your capital requirement.

thanks.