Mutual fund shop CEOs may want to consider promising bigger year-end bonuses for next year.

That's one of the tips offered by asset management industry recruiter George Wilbanks in a new commentary piece, "Growing Profitability Creates Conflicts at Firms Holding the Line on Pay."

Wilbanks, of Stamford, Connecticut-based Wilbanks Partners, predicts that cautious fundster chiefs will be able to avoid raising their employees' pay significantly despite rising AUM. Yet he worries about "significant conflicts" as senior management with equity stakes benefits from rising profitability, so he recommends that managers explain their volatility worries to their employees and offer other carrots, such as higher 2014 bonuses, more education, awards and promotion celebrations, and "work/life balance programs."

"If these concerns are not adequately addressed during 2014, we expect unforced turnover to rise, as top performers vote with their feet and go to competitors more frequently," Wilbanks writes. "Our advice is for senior managers to pay special attention to a wide range of engagement tools and to openly discuss the expected volatility in markets that led to more conservative business planning environments, while assuring teams that, if the broad market remains at the current levels or higher, 2014 yearend compensation could improve." 

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