Investor Due Diligence & Emerging Managers?

Investor Due Diligence & Emerging Managers?


My background is in marketing and I know one of the big challenges of raising capital for both emerging and medium sized hedge funds is that everyone wants their 3, 15 or 125 checkboxes to be complete. There are so many investment managers competing for capital that investors must limit who they seriously consider and complete expensive due diligence on to those which have top percentile performance, risk management tools, track records and AUM figures. This can be very frustrating and an ongoing challenge for many managers trying to grow their business and assets under management.

I got this email earlier today from a hedge fund manager:

"It would be interesting for you to post an article on how hedge funds that are doing well in 2009 are not necessarily the ones who will get capital given stricter due diligence requirements. For example, our fund, the XXXX XXXXX Fund was up over 50% through May and is up something in the range of 65% as an estimate through June yet it is still very difficult to raise capital because nobody wants to allocate to smaller funds."

and a follow up email from this same fund later in the day:

I have come across your page a bunch of times and I figured I would make the suggestion. When you think back to when hedge funds first became popular, having the best of the best portfolio managers manage money for the extremely wealthy was more of a status symbol than anything else. Alternative investments have obviously evolved over time. But the idea was that these investors would take some risk in order to enable their personal portfolio managers to generate outsized returns. People seem to lose sight of the fact that there is still a tremendous amount of talented, brilliant managers out there who have been through many cycles and have the capacity to do extremely in months and years to come. Now is a time when people who take risk will get richer. Yet people are so gun shy that they run the risk of overlooking the best talent and missing opportunities that may, in some cases, only be available to the 200mm or 300mm boutique shops. They lose sight of what the business is about, of what they invested with hedge funds for in the first place. Unfortunately, it has boiled down to investors being more concerned with checking boxes and analysts at institutional investment firms being more concerned with keeping their jobs than truly finding the best talent.

While I don't agree 100% with the statement above, the manger makes a few good points and I would be interested in more feedback that other managers have about overcoming the "checkbox mentality." If you have feedback please email me at Richard@hedgefundgroup.org.

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Tags: hedge fund, hedge funds, hedge fund investor due diligence, investor due diligence process, DDQ, investor due diligence on emerging hedge fund managers

Investment Fund Marketing & Sales | Practical Tips

Fund Marketing | Practical Tips


A few weeks ago I completed my speech on “5 Best Practices for Hedge Fund Marketing” at the Marcus Evans Fund of Hedge Fund Summit in Boca Raton, Florida. I got connected with some quality hedge fund contacts and ran into a few followers of our sites as well.

Below please find some of the most useful practical fund marketing tips that I suggested during my speech, the full video recording of the speech along with the PowerPoint will be available as part of the training materials within the Hedge Fund Group’s hedge fund certification program within the Level 2 Module on Marketing & Sales.
  1. Focus on Building Authority above all else: The power of true authority within an industry trickles down and puts other influential factors into motion which help you develop valuable relationships
  2. Move the Free Line: Give away your best ideas within press inquiries, books, interviews, articles, white papers and videos
  3. Diverse Investor Case Studies: Have at least two case studies of investors choosing to place capital with your firm for each of the major distribution channels you are focusing on raising capital from. For example have six total case studies if 90% of your efforts are focused on family offices, wealth management firms, and HNW individual selling.
  4. The 4 P’s of Marketing Materials: Focus on Pedigree, Process (USP), Portfolio Risk, and Presentation Quality
If you are looking for a speaker on the topic of capital raising, alternative investments or hedge funds please click here.


Tags: Hedge Fund Marketing, hedge funds marketing, marketing, sales, hedge fund sales, selling hedge funds, how to raise capital for a hedge fund, hedge fund marketing speaker

Private Equity Blogger.com Resource

Private Equity Blogger.com Resource


If you are looking to learn more about Private Equity as an investment, career or for prospects for your small business please refer to PrivateEquityBlogger.com. This is a blog ran by the H Media Group and it contains over 500 unique articles, videos, interviews, book reviews and Q & A pieces on private equity. Here are links to their top 50 resources:
  1. Private Equity Jobs and Careers
  2. Private Equity Videos
  3. Alternative Investment Jobs
  4. Private Equity Tracker Tool
  5. Service Providers
  6. Private Equity Book
  7. Private Equity Associate
  8. Private Equity Industry
  9. Private Equity Directory Listings
  10. Hedge Fund List
  11. Private Equity and Hedge Funds
  12. Private Equity MBA
  13. Private Equity Real Estate List
  14. Private Equity Conference
  15. Private Equity Real Estate
  16. Private Equity Forum
  17. Access PEBlogger.com Archives
  18. Resume writing
  19. Private equity partner
  20. Venture Capital Associate
  21. Private Equity Positions
  22. Private Equity Job Database
  23. 3i Group PLC
  24. Admiral Capital Group
  25. Apollo Management
  26. AXA Private Equity
  27. Baring Private Equity
  28. The Carlyle Group
  29. Goldman Sachs Capital Partners
  30. Leonard Green & Partners
  31. KKR Private Equity
  32. The Future of Venture Capital
  33. Private Equity in Africa
  34. Angel Investing Video Part 1
  35. Angel Investing Video Part 2
  36. Angel Investing Video Part 3
  37. Private Equity in China
  38. Venture Capital Bloggers Video
  39. Raising Venture Capital Video
  40. Private Equity Boom
  41. Private Equity Real Estate Video
  42. Middle East World Economic Forum Discussing Private Equity 2007
  43. General Partner Fees
  44. Independent Directors for Private Equity Funds
  45. Private Equity in Brazil
  46. Private Equity Activity 2009
  47. FDIC Private Equity
  48. Mechanical Trading Systems by Richard Weissman
  49. Sri Lanka Investments
  50. Michael Jackson Private Equity

Tags: private equity, private equity industry, private equity blog, blog on private equity, private equity articles, private equity resources, private equity book, private equity author

Top 20 Links to Investing Marketing & Alternative Investment Websites

  1. Family Offices Group
  2. Hedge Fund Blogger.com
  3. Albourne Village
  4. Third Party Marketing .com
  5. Magnum Fund Articles
  6. Family Office Database
  7. Harvard Hedge Funds Guide
  8. Hedge Fund Startup Guru.com
  9. The Wealth Report by the WSJ
  10. Private Equity Blogger.com
  11. NY Times Dealbook - on Hedge Funds
  12. Fund Administration .org
  13. Fintag's Hedge Fund News Site
  14. Prime Brokerage Guide.com
  15. SEC Website on Hedge Funds
  16. Hedge Fund Certification.com
  17. Google News on Hedge Funds
Tags: third party marketing, capital raising tools and resources, hedge fund capital raising help, top websites on marketing, marketing, sales, investment marketing, investment capital

Independent Directors for Funds

Independent Directors for Funds


Below is a short article on how some pension funds in the UK are asking hedge funds and private equity funds to have strong independent boards to look out on behalf of investors. I think that this is a growing trend and hundreds of additional institutional investors and family offices will be demanding this from hedge fund and private equity firms which they invest in.

Universities Superannuation Scheme, the second largest UK pension fund, is calling for hedge funds to appoint more independent directors to protect the interests of investors.

The USS plans to invest about £1.25bn in 25 single-manager hedge funds in the next two years as part of a strategy to double its allocation to alternative assets to 20 per cent. Currently, its only exposure to hedge funds is a £200m investment in replication strategies operated by State Street and Switzerland’s Partners Group. Read more...

Related to Independent Directors for Hedge Funds

Tags: Independent Directors, Hedge Fund Independent Directors, independent director of a hedge fund, independent board for a hedge fund

Family Office Investors | Institutional Capital Riaising Tool

Family Office Investors

Below is a short video on the Family Offices Database, a capital raising resource ran by the Family Offices Group. Part of our team here at ThirdPartyMarketing.com helps upgrade this product every 4-6 months.



Learn more at http://www.FamilyOfficesDatabase.com.



Tags: Family Office Investors, Institutional investors, institutional hedge fund investors, institutional private equity investors, CTA Fund Investors, Top hedge fund investors, family office

Investment Marketing & Sales Strategies | MP3 Audio File Download

Last week I gave a speech entitled, "Top 5 Investment Fund Marketing & Sales Best Practices" in Boca Raton at a conference put on by Marcus Evans.

Today we are making the first 25 minutes of the speech available via MP3 Audio File Download. This file may be uploaded to your Ipod, saved to your computer or emailed to others on your team. Please always consult with expert compliance and legal advisors before putting in new marketing strategies or materials into place. To receive the download link for this resource please complete your name and email address below:




Tags: investment fund marketing, investment marketing, capital raising for investment funds, richard wilson speech, hedge fund marketing audio file download, alternative investment marketing

Third Party Marketing and Placement Agents

Third Party Marketing Restrictions


Third Party Marketing & Placement Agent RestrictionsThe third party marketing industry has been battered over the past 6 months with dozens of reports of un-ethical or illegal kickbacks being provided to third party marketing agents, placements agents and those in control of funds at large institutional investors. This is the first public black mark for the third party marketing industry in several years and many large investor groups are now reviewing the rules surrounding the use of placement agents. In the past full disclosure was adequate to 99% of investors, but now some are not looking at funds which use such agents. Here is a related about this trend:
Legislative leaders have agreed to spend up to $100,000 to help pay for an independent review of New Mexico's investment practices and policies.

Questions have been raised about investments of public money because of millions of dollars in fees paid to third-party marketing and placement agents by firms that won investment business with the State Investment Council and an educational retirement fund.

Lawmakers are also troubled by billions of dollars in losses in pension and investment funds during the past year as financial market deteriorated.

The Legislative Council, a group of House and Senate leaders, directed its staff on Wednesday to solicit bids from firms interested in doing a wide-ranging examination of the State Investment Council and agencies that administer public pension funds, the Educational Retirement Board and the Public Employees Retirement Association.

The agencies manage funds valued at $25 billion at the end of March.

Gov. Bill Richardson's administration is jointly commissioning the investment review with the Legislature, and the executive branch will provide up to $200,000. source
Benefit from over $140,000 worth of free consulting advice found within our Hedge Fund Marketing & Sales Guide.

Related to Third Party Marketing & Placement Agent Restrictions

Tags: third party marketing, hedge funds, hedge fund, alternative investments, placement agents, third party marketing rules and regulations, restrictions on placement agents

Marketing Alternative Investments - Tips

Alternative Investment Marketing & Sales


Alternative Investment Marketing & SalesYesterday morning I completed my speech on “5 Best Practices for Hedge Fund Marketing” at the Marcus Evans Fund of Hedge Fund Summit in Boca Raton, Florida. I got connected with some great funds that I have never heard of before and also ran into a few followers of HedgeFundBlogger.com and FamilyOfficesGroup.com as well.

Below please find some of the most useful practical tips which I mentioned during my speech, the full video recording of the speech along with the PowerPoint will be available as part of the training materials within the Hedge Fund Group (HFG) hedge fund certification program within the Level 2 Module on Marketing & Sales.

1. Focus on Building Authority: The power of true authority within an industry trickles down and puts other influential factors into motion which help you develop valuable relationships

2. Move the Free Line: Give away your best ideas within press inquiries, books, interviews, articles, white papers and videos

3. Diverse Investor Case Studies: Have at least two case studies of investors choosing to place capital with your firm for each of the major distribution channels you are focusing on raising capital from. For example have six total case studies if 90% of your efforts are focused on family offices, wealth management firms, and HNW individual selling.

4. The 4 P’s of Marketing Materials: Focus on Pedigree, Process (USP), Portfolio Risk, and Presentation Quality

Related to Alternative Investment Marketing & Sales

Tags: Alternative Investments, hedge fund, hedge funds, raising capital for alternative investments, alternative investment conference, alternative investment managers

Raising Capital from Family Offices

Family Office Capital Raising Advice


Family Office Capital Raising AdviceI often get asked how a fund should effectively work with a family office to slowly grow a relationship and be considered for an allocation. Many funds are interested in raising capital from family office wealth management firms because just a hand full of successful relationships may significantly raise the total assets under management for the firm.

Family Office Definition: A family office is a wealth and financial management firm setup to protect and grow the assets of single wealth family or group of families and wealthy individuals. Typical multi-family office clients have $30M or more in assets each, while many single family offices manage well over $250M in assets. The services provided by many family offices includes tax preparation and planning, wealth transfers, portfolio management, budgeting, real estate management, and insurance services. Many family offices exist because they offer a full spectrum of services which ensure that the client's total financial picture is taken into consideration before decisions are made.

Tips on how to work with family offices:
  • Many family offices are called daily by asset managers looking to build relationships, try to be local, different, more professional or more organized while meeting or working with family offices.
  • Focus on providing details on your team, competitive advantage and risk management process, a 7+ year track record or better will set you apart from many.
  • Similar to many other types of investors, Capital preservation and consistency usually will take precedence over volatile high returns.
  • High performance returns alone does not gain you any ground with a family office, in fact too high of returns may simply appear as risky and typically the most inexperienced fund mangaers concentrate their relationship development efforts on touting their high performance returns.
  • There are over 2,000 family offices in the United States alone, if you have gained some traction within this space it would be wise to allocate 30% of your time to this distribution channel and assign someone to help grow assets within this space. There are so many family offices to grow relationships with that anything less than a concerted effort using a dedicated professional and database of family offices may not be worth it.
  • Communicate through multiple channels. Sometimes sending a folder on your company, a well thought out but very concise email and then a phone call can be most effective while building a new relationship. Using these other marketing tools instead of just simply blasting out emails or calling everyone can make for a more productive relationship.
  • Do not call a family office that you would like to work with on a daily basis, they are relatively small organizations and do not have the time to work with groups which do not provide them with the professional consideration and space to reply in time to incoming requests. While I raised capital from wealth management firms and family offices we would touch base and follow up with these firms every week and a half, this way we try to stay on top of their minds without bugging them too much.

For a database of family office contacts please see FamilyOfficesDatabase.com, for a free-to-access collection of articles on family offices please see FamilyOfficesGroup.com.

Related to Family Office Capital Raising Advice

Tags: Capital Raising, Raising Capital from Family Offices, family office family offices, wealth management, financial advisors, hedge fund, hedge funds, private equity, alternative investments

5 Unique Hedge Fund Marketing Tactics (3 of 5)

5 Unique Hedge Fund Marketing Tactics (3 of 5)


This is part 3 of 5 within a series on unique hedge fund marketing tactics that managers should investigate further while working to raise capital for their funds. Before taking any of these actions please consult with your compliance and legal counsel for confirmation that you are able to use these methods to market your specific fund.

Forget about contacting more investors. Yes, it may seem illogical to forget about contacting new investors while attempting to raise capital, but this may be what you need to do to meet your business goals. Many of the hedge funds I speak to want to be connected with investors, they want lists of family offices, seed capital providers or HNW wealth management firms. While accessing more investor contact details may be a useful resource and improve your marketing efforts it is often not the real constraint which is holding your business back.

No business is perfect, every business has some constraint which if removed would help the business more than anything else. Sometimes this constraint is portfolio management expertise, sometimes it is marketing materials, and many times it is lack of institutionalized processes and tools. Very seldom do I meet with hedge funds which if provided with a long list of 1,000 investors would explode in assets under management.

Most hedge funds do not take the time to right down all of their current business problems or symptoms and ask the why questions needed to identify the root constraint within their business model. A good tool that I have seen used by half a dozen management consulting gurus is the "4 Why Process." If you ask why something is happening 4 times you will get to the root cause of the problem.
  • Initial Problem/Symptom: Why don't we manage $100M in assets yet? Why?
  • Potential Answer: We are not raising capital from wealth management firms as you had hoped. Why?
  • Potential Answer: Our marketing materials have not been brought up to part with the competitions, they are light and our investment process is poorly described. Why?
  • Potential Answer: We now that you should be paying a consultant or in-house marketer to help with both marketing materials and generating relationships but you have not hired one. Why?
  • Potential Answer: We do not have the profits available to hire a full time marketer but we get around to creating a system to share equity, grow relationships with third party marketers or build a marketing related advisory board.
The point of this exercise is to identify what the bottleneck is that is slowing down your growth. A hedge fund can be seen a 20 link chain, you must have all 20 strong links in place to keep the business growing long-term. If 19 links can carry the weight of a $300M fund but one link is only up to par for a $10M fund than you will limit your growth and you may never or only very slowly grow into a $300M fund. The biggest return for your investment of time and money will be to focus on that one broken or sub-par link within your operations, marketing, trading or internal business processes, anything else would be a relative waste of money or energy.

This is a unique marketing technique because it is a reminder that the smartest thing you could do for your marketing and sales campaign may have nothing to do with picking up a phone or buying a database of investors. Before spending more money or valuable time try to consider the following 2 tips for improving your ability to attract investors:

Use the "4 Why Tool" to drill down deeper into the top 5 problems that you see your fund facing right now. Often times 3-5 problems will often be symptoms of a single root cause which can be directly addressed.

Ask others including your advisory board, current investors, potential investors and co-workers what is holding your fund back. Do not settle with two word surface answers and try to identify what 3-5 action steps your fund could take this quarter to improve how you are positioned and address the #1 limiting factor in your business.

Related to 5 Unique Hedge Fund Marketing Tactics (3 of 5)

Tags: Hedge fund marketing, capital raising, fund marketing, third party marketing, hedge fund, hedge funds, private equity, alternative investments, marketing, sales, fundraising

Databases & Directories of Investors

Databases & Directories of Investors


Our team is collecting feedback on what specific databases and directories of investors would be most useful to Hedge Funds, Long Only Managers, Commodity Trading Advisor funds, Real Estate Funds and Private Equity funds. To date we have compiled the following list, have we missed a type of investor you would like to obtain contact details on?
  • Pension Funds
  • Endowment Funds
  • Foundations
  • Single and Multi-Family Offices
  • Wealth Management Firms and Financial Planners
  • Hedge Funds
  • Fund of Hedge Funds
  • Private Equity Funds
  • Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS)
  • Prime Brokerage Firms (for capital introduction contacts)
  • Third Party Marketing Firms
  • High Net Worth (HNW) Individuals
  • Ultra High Net Worth (UHNW) Individuals
  • Seed Capital Providers
  • Sovereign Wealth Funds
  • Angel Investors
  • Venture Capitalists
  • Film & Movie Funding Groups
  • Litigation Funding Sources
What are we missing? What do you need for your business to grow?


Tags: Excel Database of investors, excel directory of investors, investor database, online investor database, real estate investors, hedge fund investors, private equity investors, CTA investors

Connect with Me on Linkedin.com

Connect with Me


A lot of my hedge fund related networking occurs over Linkedin.com which hosts over 50,000 professionals of professionals which work in the hedge fund industry.

I personally have around 3,000 direct connections on Linkedin.com you can benefit from that by connecting directly to me if you would like, here is my profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/richardcwilson. You may connect directly to me by referencing the email address Richard@hedgefundgroup.org.



Tags: Linkedin.com, hedge fund managers on linkedin.com, hedge fund, hedge funds, private equity, investments, investment networking

Ban on Third Party Marketers

Third Party Marketing Ban


Third Party Marketing Ban | State AgenciesLately several state agencies have looked into and taken steps to ban the use of third party marketing firms presenting potential investment managers to them, this is because of the recent controversies surrounding politically connected kickbacks on investments made through these third party organizations. While this is a black mark for the third party marketing industry I do not see this as hurting business at all for the industry, I believe that third party marketing will continue to rapidly grow over the next 5-7 years as firms further evolve and focus more and more on the their competitive advantage which is usually their risk management and portfolio management techniques. Here is an excerpt one of the state agency third party marketing ban cases:
A state agency is banning the use of third-party marketing agents by firms trying to obtain investments from New Mexico’s $11 billion permanent funds.

The State Investment Council also voted Tuesday to ban certain campaign contributions by investment firms that have contracts with the agency. The contribution restrictions will apply to the firms as well as their principals, employees and their family members. source
Here is a public response from a third party marketing association on this matter:
The New York State Common Retirement Fund’s ban on the involvement of marketing intermediaries from the investment manager selection process and New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo’s public pension code of conduct will have the unintended result of making marketing and sales practices less transparent and much more difficult to monitor. The restrictions will also serve to limit the ability of smaller and new firms to market to institutional investors as well as limiting worthwhile investment opportunities for pension funds.

Let us be clear: The Third Party Marketers Association’s members firmly support the concept of a code of conduct that governs the decision-making process of public and private investment plans and that leads to the disclosure of any and all conflicts of interest. What we are against is the widespread banning of third-party marketers, who operate in an ethical and professional manner and according to the rules and regulations now in place. source

Tags: ban on third party marketers, third party marketing ban, third party marketing, third party marketers, 3pm ban, ban on independent investment marketers, hedge fund, hedge funds

Hedge Fund Asset Inflows

Hedge Fund Inflows


Below is a short article from Bloomberg on the level of hedge fund asset inflows for April, the highest seen in 9 months now:

Hedge funds attracted $15.4 billion in April, the biggest inflow in nine months, as managers had their best performance in more than three years on surging global stock prices, according to Eurekahedge Pte.

Gross inflows to the industry were the largest since August, based on preliminary estimates, according to Ankur Samtaney, an analyst at the Singapore-based research firm. The Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index, tracking more than 2,000 funds globally, gained 3 percent in April, bringing its year-to-date advance to 3.9 percent, based on 70 percent of the funds reporting, the firm said in a report.

Hedge funds benefited as global stocks surged 11 percent in April, as measured by the MSCI World Index of shares in 23 developed nations. Fund managers are beating global benchmarks in 2009 after suffering the worst year on record in 2008. source



Tags: Hedge Fund Assets, Hedge Fund Inflows, Hedge Fund Asset Increases, hedge funds, hedge fund, alternative investments, hedge fund marketing

Hedge Fund Incubation Services

Hedge Fund Incubation Services


Hedge Fund Incubation ServicesBelow please find a short article excerpt on hedge fund incubation and seeding. This resource is being published on Hedge FundStartup Guru.com. Here is the excerpt:

In 2006 if someone suggested that it was a good idea to be seeding and incubating hedge funds, I would have been highly skeptical. Managers who were any good were raising large amounts of capital on their own on day one, mediocre managers were able to start with credible amounts of day one capital and even managers who while talented had no idea how to run an investment management business could get into business. The hedge fund seeder faced insurmountable adverse selection problems.

Hedge fund managers willing to give away either a share in their management company or a share of their fees tended to be of lower quality. You didn't want to be seeding them.

Hedge fund managers of good quality but who understood the business development support role of a seeder and were happy to work with one were labeled as poorer quality and found it difficult to raise capital, so also were from a business perspective, less attractive to a seeder.

Seeding was simply a negative signal to the market all around.

In fact, seeders play an important part in the hedge fund industry. They provide all kinds of support that the fledgling hedge fund manager simply doesn't want to bother with such as infrastructure, business development and marketing, a stable base of capital, corporate governance, risk management and a host of intangibles such as a sounding board for trade or business ideas.

Of course until the adverse selection problem was resolved, none of this really mattered. And well it should be. The adverse selection up until the middle of 2007 was severe.

2008/2009. What's changed? Investors risk appetite has been drastically reduced. The number of new funds starting up is down drastically, the number of fund closures is up drastically. The size of the hedge fund industry has halved in size by assets under management according to several of the usual industry sources such as HFR, Eurekahedge and surveys conducted by the major prime brokers. source

View over a dozen additional resources on starting a hedge fund on Hedge Fund Startup Guru.com.


Tags: Hedge Fund Incubation, Services for small hedge funds, hedge fund startup services, incubating a hedge fund

Family Office Directory Analysis | Contact Family Offices

Family Office Directory


How to choose a directory of family offices:

When selecting a directory or database of family offices to purchase there are 4 points to consider or investigate before making a purchase. By following these tips you will avoid purchasing something built for a different audience, working with information that is largely outdated or receiving data which has not been thoroughly prepared for commercial use with Excel or common CRP systems.

Top 4 Tips for Family Office Directory Selection

1. Length: Many family office directories come with 400 to 1,500 total contacts. In the last year how many firms has your team had time to effectively reach out to? 400? 800? Do you only speak with family offices while marketing your products? While it may be nice to obtain a directory of 1,000+ family offices make sure you don’t pay too much for a database built for a Fortune 500 company instead of a small team of 3-5 marketing and relationship development professionals. Often times just 300-900 contacts may be more than enough to expand your firm’s reach within this industry

2. Statistics Matter: Ask the owner of the family office directory for the percentage of contacts which come with email addresses AND phone numbers. Many databases have poor data quality and only 60-70% of their contacts even list a single email address for the firm. Look for 80-90%+ of listings to have both an email address and phone number for each firm.

3. Price < $1,000: Hiring professionals to efficiently use a database of family office contacts can be expensive; don’t spend more than $1,000 on your directory of family offices. It does take hundreds of hours to build a great product within this space but any firm selling such a product could make you a deal and sell a version of the database to you for $700-$900.

4. Check the Source: Who is providing the database of family offices? It is a firm which naturally speaks with family offices day-to-day? Can the professionals behind the product provide advice on how to approach family offices and HNW wealth management firms? The quality of the organization behind the product can often give you clues as to how valuable their end family office directory product may be. A quick example: The Family Offices Group is a family office networking association of 5,000 plus professionals. Due to their day-to-day contact with family offices and the firm’s history in raising assets from family office investors they know how to create a valuable directory of contact details on firms in the industry.

- Adriana

Adriana Albuquerque is the Managing Director of the Family Offices Group and responsible for developing the associated directory of family offices. To learn more please see FamilyOfficesDatabase.com.

Related To:
Tags: Family Office Directory, family offices directory, directories of family offices, directory of family offices, family office, family offices

5 Unique Hedge Fund Marketing Tactics (2 of 5)

Marketing Tactics

5 Unique Hedge Fund Marketing Tactics (2 of 5)


This is Part 2 of 5 within a series on unique hedge fund marketing tactics that managers should investigate further while working to raise capital for their funds, to read Part 1 please click here. Before taking any of these actions please consult with your compliance and legal counsel for confirmation that you are able to use these methods to market your specific fund.

Educational Marketing - One of the most effective ways you can market your hedge fund is by being 4x more educational and easy to understand than your competition. I wrote here in my blog last year that a recent survey showed that over 78% of institutional investors will not invest in something which they cannot understand, I would imagine that for HNW investors this figure is even higher.

While some managers purposely position their fund to appear "black box" and top secret you could market your fund as being more open, transparent and simple in how you approach explaining your investment process. This does not meant that you ignore advanced methods or models of trading and managing portfolios, but it would require more of a 10,000 foot view and explanation of your investment process instead of the 500 foot views that I often see. The trick in doing this right is balancing providing enough detail and real meat that an institutional investor or consultant will gain some granularity while you don't completely overwhelming HNW investors or wealth managers who may be less versed in common hedge fund strategies of portfolio management techniques.

Here is a list of 4 additional ways you may market your hedge fund in a more educational or simple way:
  1. PowerPoint - Dedicate 20% of your PowerPoint presentation to educational content. Asterisk all industry terms and note that definitions are provided within the back of the presentation. Explain your investment process so that anyone could understand, at least on a high level how your fund operates. Start with your team, high level investment process and how that all comes together before digging into trading examples or risk management tools.
  2. Folder - Many managers use a folder of marketing materials while meeting with clients. This often includes a one pager, PowerPoint presentation, and a recent quarterly market outlook newsletter written by the PM. It is wise to always include some additional reading within the folder as well. Provide 2-3 white papers written by experts outside of your firm that speak to the trends related to the assets your firm invests in or strategy your firm employs.
  3. Speaking & Writing - This also came up within the last post in this series on public relations but I would highly recommend writing and speaking every week to help build a presence, brand and network within the industry. Speaking at wealth management conferences and HNW related events can be highly effective.
  4. Wealth Management & Financial Planners - One of the most ignored sources of capital for hedge fund managers are small to medium sized wealth management firms and financial planning groups that serve HNW professionals from time to time but don't manage $1B+ in total assets. Many of these groups work as part of a broker-dealer network or RIA and they may only meet in person with 5-10 hedge funds in any on year vs. larger institutions which may meet with several each week. These relationships take a long time to build into effective sources of capital but I have found that if you approach them in a more educational fashion than your institutional leads they can pay off as very sticky long-term accounts.
This was Part 2 of our 5 Part series called "Unique Hedge Fund Marketing Techniques". To view part 1 of this series on public relations for hedge funds please click here.


Also check out our Hedge Fund Marketing & Sales Guide.

Related to5 Unique Hedge Fund Marketing Tactics (2 of 5)

Tags: Hedge Fund Marketing, Hedge Fund Marketing Tactics, Advice on Capital Raising for hedge fund managers, how to raise capital from wealth management firms

Unique Capital Raising & Marketing Tactics (1/5)

Marketing Tactics

Unique Fund Marketing Tactics (1/5)


This is part 1 of a 5 part series on unique hedge fund marketing tactics that managers should investigate further while attempting to raise capital for their funds, to read Part 2 please click here. Before taking any of these actions please consult with your compliance and legal counsel for confirmation that you are able to use these methods to market your specific fund.

Public Relations Management - Public relations has to be one of the most ignored marketing tools of hedge fund managers today. I have worked with over three dozen hedge funds on their marketing plans and capital raising efforts and so far the most intense public relations effort I have seen set forth was a single press release over a four year time period. This is not to say that any hedge fund that is not putting out 4 press releases a year is doing something wrong, but many could benefit by being more available to the press.

The media is hungry for real time opinions for hedge fund managers, traders and marketers. They need comments on current market conditions, trends in hiring and firing of traders and portfolio managers and what prospects lay ahead for the industry as a whole.

Many hedge fund managers shy away from contributing to news stories in the press. I would strongly encourage you to speak with your legal counsel and see if they would approve of your discussions with the media if you stick to industry trends, general market trends and long-term movements you are seeing within the industry.

Top 4 Tips for Taking Advantage of Public Relations for your Hedge Fund:
  1. Speak to your legal counsel to check on exactly what you can say or not say within the press.
  2. Develop a list of 10-15 targeted publications which you would like to appear in. Identify the editor of financial columns within that publication or news source and introduce yourself to them as a resource.
  3. Speak at public events, conferences, networking events and other places in the industry where you will be heard not only be others in the industry but probably a few members of the press as well.
  4. Consider writing a book on your insights and experience. Many professionals in the hedge fund industry are asked to come onto TV or are interviewed often after they have published a book on a core issue related to the hedge fund industry such as regulation or quantitative trading.
I am not an expert in public relations but if you need some names or online resources feel free to shoot me an email. Please stay tuned for additional posts within this hedge fund marketing series.

To read Part 2 of this series on "Unique Hedge Fund Marketing Tactics" please click here.


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Tags: Hedge Fund Capital Raising Techniques, Advice on hedge fund marketing, hedge fund marketing consultant, third party marketing expert, experienced hedge fund marketer

Hedge Fund Business Plan | 1 Page Summary

Business Plans

Hedge Fund Business Plan Tips


Hedge Fund Business Plan | Plans Most hedge fund startups I speak with want referrals to respected service providers or advice on attracting seed capital. Almost none have a business plan for their hedge fund and only a few have PowerPoint presentations explaining their investment strategy. If you are a fund manager in this position that doesn’t mean you have done anything wrong but you may consider writing both a hedge fund business plan and comprehensive 15-25 page PowerPoint presentation now to make it easier to work with service providers, third party marketers, institutional consultants, and potential investors.

Parts of your hedge fund business plan should include:

  • Management - What team members are required to run the fund effectively? What is the chain of command, how are decisions made and what happens if 2-3 professionals dissapeared tomorrow? Who would take over responsibilities and what would happen to your investors funds? The importance of a well constructed and managed team can not be overstated.
  • Investment Process & Risk Management - Managing risk is what running a hedge fund is all about. Meet with your prime brokerage firm’s risk advisory division, speak with your traders and portfolio managers, and network with other managers to pick up some best practices within this space. At the end of the day your risk management approach, investment process and team must be molded into one cohesive group all pointed in the right direction. There is no magic bullet to raising assets or gaining seed capital but getting this combination right is the most important thing you can focus on.
  • Service Providers: Who are you going to use as your prime brokerage firm, fund administrator, auditor or third party marketer? How will this evolve as your fund passes the $100M and $300M marks? Will you use multi-prime brokerage services? Capital introduction teams? Multiple third party marketers? Your choice of firms within this space can affect the levels of assets you manage, the quality of advice you receive and the reputation of your firm as a whole. Our advice would be to meet and interview at least 3 service providers of each type in person or over several phone calls and go with one that is well experienced yet no so large that your sub $1B account is not an annoyance to them.
  • Infrastructure & Technology: Meet with other local hedge fund managers, your trader, your prime brokerage firm and other service providers to nail down exactly what you will need in terms of reporting, processing and functioning as not only a hedge fund, but a small business. When you start a hedge fund you become an entrepreneur and you have to face all of the challenges that come with that position in addition those challenges found in managing your portfolio. Many funds under-estimate the costs of some of the technology needed to operate as they grow beyond more simple $1-$5M fund operations.
  • Marketing: Nothing is traded or managed until the dollars come in. Anyone who joins your firm or board will want to know how you are looking to grow your business. What channels of investors will you approach? Institutional investors including fund of hedge funds, consultants, large family offices and pension funds or smaller family offices, wealth management firms, HNW individuals, and accredited investor clubs? Here is a hint, in our asset raising experience the later should be 80% of your focus if you are managing less than $100M. What resources do you or should you have in place to meet these goals? Third party marketers? Databases of investors? An in-house marketing specialist? How much does this cost and when should these resources be put in place?

We will be expanding our thoughts here on what should be included in a Hedge Fund Business Plan. We will also be providing an example business plan eventually that will provide you with a template to use for your own hedge fund startup work.

Related to Hedge Fund Business Plan | Plans For Growth

Tags: Hedge Fund Business Plan, Hedge Fund Business Plans, planning to start a hedge fund, help in starting a hedge fund business, hedge fund, hedge funds

Hedge Fund Marketing License Requirements

Fund Marketing License Requirements


Hedge Fund Marketing License RequirementsBelow is a recent question that I have received often via email:
What licenses should a hedge fund marketer hold? I have heard that one should have their series 7 and series 66, is this true? Also, what licenses should I hold if I am going to be marketing my firms separate account business and mutual fund as well as their hedge fund? Thanks.

My response below:

Hello XXX,

I don't think you will find many responses to your question online - most professionals are afraid of being seen as providers of legal or licenses advice over the internet. I would check with a broker-dealer, security lawyer or compliance officer in the industry for your exact situation.

That said, in the past I have had one employer swear up and down that you hardly ever need a securities license to market the investment funds he worked with...but most professionals that i work with agree that you do need to be licensed for most types of work. The more professional and established a group is the more likely they will be licensed - why loose an account or client over not being licensed?

Hope this helps - good luck and lets keep in touch.

- Richard
Richard Wilson
Hedge Fund Group (HFG)
http://ThirdPartyMarketing.com

Tags: hedge fund marketing license, fund marketing licenses and requirements, hedge fund marketing licensing regulations

Silver Bridge Advisors Family Office Tracker

Silver Bridge Advisors

Silver Bridge Advisors Multi-Family Office


Silver Bridge Advisors Multi-Family OfficeWhile many family offices have seen their portfolios dive along with the rest of the investing world I believe that many will come out ahead of the pack for their wealthy clients. Many family offices invest 10-60% of their client assets within alternative investments and this must have helped over the past year. The S & P 500 lost 40+ percent in 2008 while hedge funds lost an average of 19%. A few family offices that I have spoken with over the last 6 months are not only weathering the storm, they are expanding.

Here is excerpt from a recent note about Silver Bridge hiring a new family office advisor for their team:
Silver Bridge Advisors, an independent, objective wealth advisory boutique that
provides thoughtful, integrated wealth management solutions, announces the
appointment of Allison L. Taff as Director of Family Office Services. Taff joins
Silver Bridge Advisors from Fidelity Family Office Services where she served as
the Senior Director of Business Development and Marketing.

As the Director of Family Office Services at Silver Bridge Advisors, Taff will
report to Stephen Prostano, President and Chief Operating Officer at Silver
Bridge. She will be responsible for further enhancing the firm`s family office
services platform in collaboration with the technology and operations teams. She
will also work closely with Silver Bridge`s client advisory teams to refine the
service model and client experience for family office clients.

"The wealth management landscape is rapidly evolving both in complexity and
sophistication," says Prostano. "Allison brings a deep expertise in creating
family office solutions that will provide wealthy families with a structure to
manage their wealth effectively and to pass on their legacy to future
generations. She is committed to providing clients with a greater level of
control and peace of mind by centralizing processes and relieving them of the
administrative burden and expense of establishing their own family offices." source

Tags: Silver Bridge Advisors, Silver Bridge, Silver Bridge Wealth management, Silver Bridge Family Office

Public Image Problems of Hedge Funds


Public Image Problems of Hedge Funds


While G20 leaders meet and among other things discuss the global regulation of hedge funds it is important to consider what we as hedge fund professionals can do to help improve the overall image and collective actions of the hedge fund industry. At some point it is in the best interest of everyone within the industry to not only act with the best intentions but to also take it one step further and pro-actively communicate a consistent message of transparency and trust to fellow employees, investors and the general public.

There are concretre things which hedge fund managers can take action on today to help improve their ability to manage their image and their share of the hedge fund industry's image through their investors, press inquiries and the conferences and networking events they attend. A few steps which can be taken could include:

  1. Creating a Formal Board of Advisors: I have seen some hedge funds grow not because they have hired the most third party marketing firms or spent the most on face-to-face paid introductions but because they sought advice and advisory from a diverse and experienced group of industry professionals. Building a board of advisors of 4-12 professionals with experience in running the portfolio management, marketing and operations of a fund can make the difference between making it to the $100M and $1B marks or staying off the radar of most investors forever.

  2. Managing Your Public Relations: No, you do not need to spend $12,000 a month on a public relations consultant but at the very least you should speak with other managers on hwo they handle inquiries, speak with your compliance advisor about what you can say and not say and decide as a fund what clear messages you will be trying to send when there are opportunities to speak with the press or at an event or conference. These opportunities are numerous for those who seek them and are ready to execute when the time is right.

  3. Creating an Ethics Policy: Every fund, from the three person startup to the 300 employee multi-billion dollar funds should have an ethics policy. This policy should be public, followed and principles-based as much possible since new situations arise daily which may not fit a rigid lists of rules and commands.

  4. Increase or Emphasize Your Skin in the Game: Many investors, press professionals and consultants I speak with often forget that a good number of hedge fund managers have invested within their own portfolios. If you have 70-100% of your net worth or liquid net worth invested within your fund, explain this to your investors it is suprising how seldom this is mentioned within current industry marketing materials. You need to have something to lose if clients lose, in many cases investors want a group which is motivated to quickly cut potential losses and protect the portfolio above all else.

Tags: hedge fund marketing, hedge fund, hedge funds, public image of hedge funds

Hedge Fund Seed Capital Assistance Consulting

Capital Raising Help

Help Finding Seed Capital for New Funds?


Help Finding Seed Capital for New Hedge Funds?Question: Do you help hedge funds who are seeking hedge fund startup capital?

Answer: Yes and no, the classic “it depends.” I have a list of seed capital providers which you may access for free here. In addition to that I have many capital introduction and third party marketing contacts which I may be able to help you connect with. I do this through working with a prime brokerage firm here in the US. This firm specializes in working with hedge funds with under $100M under management and has many relationships in place which can help these funds grow over time.

If you would like to learn more about how we can help please email us at Richard@hedgeFundgroup.org.

For general information on hedge fund marketing please see: Marketing & Sales Tips

For information on starting a hedge fund please see our guide here: Hedge Fund Startup Tools

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Tags: Help with seed Capital, Seed Capital assistance, seed capital consultant, hedge fund seed capital investments, investing seed capital in hedge funds, seed capital investment firms

Can Hedge Funds Speak to the Press? Q & A

Hedge Fund Press Exposure

Can Hedge Funds Speak to the Press? Q & A


Can Hedge Funds Speak to the Press? | Q & AQuestion: Why Can’t Hedge Funds Speak with the Press?

Answer: Due to current SEC solicitation regulations many hedge fund professionals will not speak directly to the press. While it is often the case that speaking to the press itself is not grounds for action from a regulatory body saying the wrong thing can, and many hedge funds do not want to come anywhere close to doing so.

I have heard from many reporters both within the US and elsewhere who have a hard time connecting directly with hedge fund managers for press inquiries. If you are one of these journalists or book authors looking to connect with hedge fund managers please shoot us an email and we can provide some guidance or introduce you to a few hedge fund public relations experts who could also be of assistance.

For dozens of additional articles on hedge fund marketing and sales please see this section of our website: Marketing & Sales Tips

Related to Can Hedge Funds Speak to the Press? | Q & A

Tags: Can Hedge Funds Speak to the press, hedge fund press exposure, investment fund press exposure, investment public relations, mutual fund press exposure, alternative investment public relations
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