Hiring, Outsourcing, or Buying Geopolitical Risk Intelligence: The Real Cost Comparison

TL;DR: A company can build geopolitical risk capability three ways: hire an analyst, retain a consultancy, or subscribe to a platform, and each carries a different cost, ramp time, and failure mode. HSBC's July 2025 decision to cut its geopolitical risk team, the same year JPMorganChase built a new one, shows how exposed the in-house path is to the next budget cycle.

Key takeaways:

• HSBC eliminated fewer than 10 geopolitical risk roles across Asia and Europe on July 18, 2025 as a cost-cutting move, the same year JPMorganChase launched a new Center for Geopolitics.
• A geopolitical risk analyst earns $62,000 to $102,500 a year in the middle 50% of postings, averaging $84,210, and a mid-level hire takes 30 to 45 days to fill on average.
• Comparable strategic advisory retainers run $2,000 to $15,000 a month depending on scope, a fraction of a full-time hire's loaded cost but with no standing bandwidth on a company's own risks.
• The market for geopolitical risk analytics platforms is projected to grow from $4.02 billion in 2025 to $15.26 billion by 2035, as more companies choose continuous coverage over a single hire or a periodic engagement.

On July 18, 2025, HSBC dismantled the small team responsible for assessing geopolitical risk across its operations, cutting fewer than 10 positions in Asia and Europe as part of a wider cost reduction under chief executive Georges Elhedery.[1] The same year, JPMorganChase opened a dedicated Center for Geopolitics, while Goldman Sachs and Lazard expanded similar advisory services of their own.[2] Two banks facing the same environment made opposite bets on how to hold this capability, and the cost difference between hiring, outsourcing, and subscribing to it is a decision most companies never run with real numbers.

Geostrategic Capability, Three Paths to Build It

Once a company decides geopolitical risk deserves a formal answer, it chooses among three paths, each with a distinct cost structure.

• Hire an analyst. A geopolitical risk analyst carries a base salary between $62,000 and $102,500 in the middle 50% of US postings, averaging $84,210, before benefits, tools, and management overhead.[3] Filling that role takes 30 to 45 days on average for a mid-level individual contributor position, according to a December 2025 benchmark drawing on SHRM, LinkedIn Talent Insights, Glassdoor, and US Bureau of Labor Statistics data.[4]
• Retain a consultancy. Dedicated political risk advisory pricing is rarely published, but comparable strategic and executive advisory retainers run $2,000 to $15,000 a month depending on scope, according to 2026 consulting fee benchmarks.[5] That buys periodic counsel, not a desk watching a company's own exposure daily.
• Subscribe to a platform. The market for geopolitical risk analytics platforms is expected to grow from $4.02 billion in 2025 to $15.26 billion by 2035, a compound annual growth rate of 14.3%, as more companies choose continuous coverage over a one-time engagement or a single hire.[6]

Geostrategic Capability, the Hidden Costs of Each Path

The sticker price on each path hides a second cost that shows up later. A single hire is a single point of failure. HSBC's disbanded team had helped senior management identify country-specific risks and occasionally briefed clients directly, and when the bank moved to cut costs, that function disappeared in one decision, folded into other teams with no stated transition plan.[1] A subscription or a documented process survives a reorganization in a way one headcount line does not.

Building the capability well, rather than symbolically, also costs more than a single salary suggests. JPMorganChase's center is led by Derek Chollet, a former senior Pentagon and State Department official, and draws on outside advisors including former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former UK prime minister Tony Blair.[2] That is the resourcing level a bank the size of JPMorganChase commits to the build path, not a template a mid-market company can replicate with one $84,000 hire.

The consultancy path carries its own hidden cost: cadence. A monthly retainer buys scheduled check-ins, not a live desk, and corporate treasurers already feel that gap. A Tradeweb ICD Portal survey of 120 treasury and finance professionals found 88% reported moderate to high concern about geopolitical conditions in January 2026, and the share reporting high concern rose from 48% to 68% between January and March 2026 as Middle East tensions escalated, faster than most retainers check in.[7]

Geostrategic Capability, a Decision Framework by Size

The right path depends less on budget alone than on how often the answer needs to change. A company facing one discrete decision, an acquisition or a market entry, gets more value from a retainer than from carrying a salary line year-round. A company whose exposure shifts weekly, a bank, an insurer, a manufacturer running cross-border supply chains, needs coverage that does not go stale between check-ins and does not disappear in the next cost-cutting round.

Very few companies operate at JPMorganChase's scale, and most do not need to. The realistic path for a mid-market company is a subscription delivering continuous coverage at a fraction of one analyst's loaded cost, reserving a consultancy for bounded questions a standing platform is not built to answer, such as a due diligence opinion on one transaction.

Fortius Intel note: Fortius Intel's free Scan turns the hire-or-outsource question into a ranked Threat Register in under 60 seconds, no card and no onboarding call. A company gets that first answer before it commits to an $84,000 salary line, a monthly retainer, or a subscription decision, and can weigh which path its own exposure actually justifies.

Methodology: this piece draws on Bloomberg's July 2025 reporting on HSBC's geopolitical risk team, JPMorganChase's May 2025 Center for Geopolitics announcement, ZipRecruiter's 2026 salary data, Treegarden's December 2025 time-to-hire benchmark report, ConsultFees.com's 2026 consulting fee benchmarks, SNS Insider's April 2026 market report, and Tradeweb's 2026 ICD Portal client survey.

---

Footnotes

1. Bloomberg, "HSBC Disbands Team Focused on Managing Geopolitical Risks," July 18, 2025. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-18/hsbc-disbands-team-focused-on-managing-geopolitical-risks
2. JPMorganChase, "JPMorganChase Launches Center for Geopolitics to Help Clients Navigate Global Business Landscape," press release, May 21, 2025. https://www.jpmorganchase.com/newsroom/press-releases/2025/center-for-geopolitics-launch
3. ZipRecruiter, "Geopolitical Risk Analyst Salary," data as of July 25, 2026. https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Geopolitical-Risk-Analyst-Salary
4. Treegarden, "Average Time to Hire 2026: Benchmarks by Industry & Role," December 24, 2025. https://treegarden.io/blog/average-time-to-hire-benchmarks-2026/
5. ConsultFees.com, "Strategy Consultant Fees: 2026 Benchmarks & Pricing Guide." https://consultfees.com/use-cases/strategy-consultants
6. SNS Insider, "Geopolitical Risk Analytics Platform Market to Reach USD 15.26 Billion by 2035," April 6, 2026. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/04/06/3268496/0/en/Geopolitical-Risk-Analytics-Platform-Market-to-Reach-USD-15-26-Billion-by-2035-Owing-to-Rising-Global-Uncertainties-and-Demand-for-Real-Time-Risk-Insights-SNS-Insider.html
7. Tradeweb Markets Inc., "Geopolitical Risk Concerns Surge for Corporate Treasurers, According to 2026 Tradeweb ICD Portal Client Survey." https://www.tradeweb.com/newsroom/media-center/news-releases/geopolitical-risk-concerns-surge-for-corporate-treasurers-according-to-2026-tradeweb-icd-portal-client-survey/