Survival Of The Hedge Fund Fittest Funds of hedge funds have long been among the least appreciated denizens of the alternative investment ecosystem. Decried by critics for charging hefty fees for often mediocre performance, funds of funds have nonetheless been one of the biggest growth drivers of the hedge fund industry during the past decade, providing a readily accessible and understandable investment vehicle for pension funds and other institutions looking to get into absolute-return strategies. Assets under management have soared at the world’s biggest multimanager hedge fund firms since Institutional Investor began ranking them in 2002 with the launch of the Fund of Funds 50. That year the 50 firms on our list managed a combined $168 billion in assets; by mid-2008 the total was $877 billion.
The past couple of years have been far less kind. The firms in the Fund of Funds 50 have seen their assets fall 40 percent, to $525 billion, as investors burned during the financial crisis looked to raise cash wherever they could. Still, the fund-of-funds industry is evolving but far from extinct.
How We Compiled the Ranking The data for Institutional Investor’s 2011 Fund of Funds 50 were gathered from questionnaires completed by the fund-of-hedge-funds firms themselves, research in the public record and extensive staff reporting. In some cases we have included estimates based on our reporting. Only multimanager hedge fund portfolios are included in the asset figures. Assets are stated in millions of dollars and are current as of January 3, 2011, unless otherwise noted. This ranking was compiled by Senior Editor Jane B. Kenney. Inevitably, we will have overlooked some institutions that belong on our list. If we missed yours, please send an e-mail to FoF50@iimagazine.com to request a questionnaire for the 2012 ranking.
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