What is Compensation Consulting?

Ferguson Partners’ provides highly specialized consulting services to the real estate and related industries to help organizations design compensation structures that are not only fair and competitive, but also enhance alignment, retention, and support future growth. This includes:

Compensation benchmarking: Comparing your pay practices to industry standards and trends to stay competitive.
Executive compensation: Structuring pay for executives and board members to align with organizational goals.
Incentive plans: Designing performance-based programs to reward results.
Proxy-related services: Advising on governance and compliance trends to create clear, effective disclosures.
Additional services: Supporting shareholder engagement, compensation risk assessments, and transaction-related advisory.

A quality compensation system does more than pay people—it empowers your organization to thrive. With a strategic approach, you can attract top talent, retain key team members, and ensure your pay practices reflect your culture.

Public Companies

For over a decade, Ferguson Partners has been the market leader in compensation counseling for public Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). In fact, we work with more public REITs than any other compensation consulting fi rm . We specialize in helping public organizations design pay programs that balance investor expectations with business needs. From benchmarking pay practices to creating proxy disclosures, we focus on helping you stay competitive and compliant.

Some of the areas we cover include:

Developing peer groups and pay structures.
Designing equity incentive plans.
Creating strategies for governance and proxy reporting.

With a proprietary database that gives us unparalleled access to real-time compensation data, we can provide forward-thinking advice that helps public companies navigate today’s challenges.

Private Companies

Privately held companies face their own unique challenges when it comes to pay practices. Our focus on privately held organizations within the commercial real estate space gives us unique insights into not only best and leading practices, but why certain concepts/ideas work well and why others may fall fl at depending on the strategy and internal dynamic of the organization. Our ability to align internal considerations with external best practices through case studies and trends allows us to help clients achieve optimal results in addressing one of the most challenging aspects of an organization. While all of our engagements are customized to suit the needs of each client, we may advise on some or all of the following topics:

Compensation Levels: Benchmarking pay for all roles using a custom peer group—considering factors like company size, strategy, geography, ownership structure, and specific job responsibilities.
Annual Bonus Plans: Funding strategies (aggregate pool and individual targets), performance metrics, payout ranges, etc.
Carried Interest Structures: Suggesting approaches for sharing carried interest, house vs. management splits, eligibility, vesting, termination treatment, and co-investment structures.
Non-Carried Interest Long-Term Incentive Plans: Reviewing different award types, performance goals, eligibility, performance periods, termination treatment, etc.
Enterprise Equity: Exploring real or synthetic equity options, including how awards are structured (granted vs. purchased), award economics (cash-fl ow or enterprise-based), timing, and valuation approaches.

Why Choose Ferguson Partners?

Industry expertise. Unparalleled insights. Impactful advice.

Ferguson Partners is a leader in compensation consulting, with unmatched expertise in REITs and private real estate firms. Our industry-specifi c knowledge and access to proprietary benchmarking data allow us to define and evaluate market practices with unmatched accuracy.

#1

Ranked in market share for advising REIT Boards on executive and Board pay matters.

125

Private real estate firms advised annually, managing assets from $100 million to $100 billion.

3,000+

Firms included in our proprietary database for compensation benchmarking.

Ready to elevate your compensation strategy?

Whether we’re benchmarking pay levels, designing incentive plans, or ensuring compliance, our approach is grounded in both historical data and an understanding of your organization’s specific needs—which results in practical, impactful solutions that help your teams thrive.