KPMG demotes underperforming partners as Big Four partnership model shifts

KPMG and EY have started demoting UK equity partners into salaried roles, cutting off profit shares for low performers and breaking with the old Big Four assumption that partnership meant status, autonomy and a near-guaranteed economic landing zone.

The shift matters because it reaches the top of the firm’s hierarchy, where the rewards are usually largest and the internal politics most guarded. KPMG’s equity partners were reported to have averaged about £800,000 each last year, so losing equity status is not a symbolic reprimand. It is a direct hit to pay, influence and long-term security.

KPMG has been inviting some partners into “career conversations” as it looks to reduce its equity partner headcount, while EY has already moved a small number of senior equity partners into salaried roles since 2022. The firms are using the demotions to concentrate profits among top performers, a sharp shift away from the industry’s long-standing habit of nudging underperforming partners toward retirement or quiet step-downs.

For people on the partner track, the message is blunt: promotion no longer guarantees insulation from restructuring. The traditional partnership model promised a high-status route that could stretch across decades. Now, as consulting demand cools and cost controls tighten, even senior equity partners are being measured against harder commercial targets, with the threat of being moved out of the profit pool if results slip.

KPMG said that over a two-year period it will have created more than 200 new roles in its partnership and that all partners are performance managed. That combination shows how aggressively the firm is redrawing the ladder inside the partnership itself, expanding some ranks while narrowing the economic rewards attached to them.

The pressure is not isolated to the top. In March 2026, KPMG also planned 500 redundancies in its audit business because very low attrition left it with too much staff for the market it is serving. That points to the wider problem facing the Big Four: after the post-pandemic surge, demand has softened, clients have pulled back on advisory work and firms are trying to protect margins while boutiques and private-equity-backed challengers compete for deals.

The result is a more unforgiving partnership culture across KPMG, EY, PwC and Deloitte. Senior people who once expected a managed glide path to retirement are now being told that performance, not tenure, decides who keeps the equity.