RSM UK partners received £708,000 for their work last year

Partners at RSM UK, a provider of audit, tax, and consulting services, were paid more last year than ever before as a result of a record performance from its booming auditing business, which came despite regulators’ criticism of challenger firms.
RSM’s 368 partners in the UK received, on average, £708,000 for their work between April 2023 and March 2024, the firm’s most recent financial year. That was up from £661,000 in the previous year.
The record pay packets followed RSM’s best-ever year, with annual revenue rising 12 per cent to a record £543 million. Profits grew by 7 per cent to £160 million.
Rob Donaldson, chief executive of RSM UK, said: “This year marked our strongest financial year yet — a remarkable milestone having achieved it against a backdrop of virtually no economic growth in the UK.”
RSM’s audit and assurance business, which checks and signs off on companies’ accounts, was the standout service line, delivering “another impressive year” as revenues grew 20 per cent to £165.2 million.
Donaldson, 53, said the rise was “primarily driven” by new client wins, including Superdry, the clothing brand, and City of London Investment Group, although he acknowledged that fee increases had “played a part”.
As the seventh-largest auditor in the UK, where it employs 5,400 people, RSM was among the challenger firms to have been called out by the Financial Reporting Council, the industry regulator, for “unacceptable” work last December.
Although it did not publish each firm’s individual score, the FRC found that almost two thirds of all the audits it inspected were below par. Donaldson said he was “aware of the findings”, but added: “While our gradings aren’t in the public domain, we believe we have successfully upheld the standards of audit quality that we have set ourselves.”
Consulting is RSM’s biggest service line, but revenues there grew only 6 per cent to £216 million as clients, wary of the macroeconomic and geopolitical outlook, reined in spending. Donaldson accepted that demand for some consulting services has “proved sluggish in recent years”, but said clients were still after help with business transformation and financial modelling.
Revenue in the tax services division increased by 11 per cent year-on-year to £161.3 million as clients seek help in understanding the “increasingly complex” tax system.
Like the partners, rank-and-file staff enjoyed a bumper payday. While other firms have chosen to cut their bonus pools, RSM increased its pot to £11.8 million from £11.3 million.
Donaldson said that was just part of a “major investment” into the business. As well as bigger bonuses for staff, RSM increased its headcount by 15 per cent, spent £6 million refurbishing offices and opening new ones, and “invested heavily” in its technology systems.
“Our decisions to invest in those areas, we believe, will create greater opportunity for the next generation of partners and wider talent,” he said. “It will also set us on our path to be known as the smart people to know, and the go-to firm for middle market leaders globally.”