Fourth quarter 2008 gave consultants and plan sponsors tough issues to assess. If a manager survived without completely destroying their clients' wealth, check the box and move to the next. Now the first half of 2009 is almost over, with a renewed sense of optimism, but how long will it last? As investors and their advisers collect their thoughts through these whipsawing markets, viability, transparency and credibility are paramount when sorting through the rubble of the past several months.
 
While hedge fund investors and advisors occupy the front pages, traditional managers are next up to determine who can withstand a prolonged period of poorer earnings. With some managers still down 50%, new questions arise: Are the senior partners ready to retire? Are junior associates planning to look elsewhere for the upside they'd hoped for when joining the firm? Can the organization afford to maintain all the legal, administrative, and compliance staff demanded by institutional investors?
 
Consultants are looking square into the eyes of investment managers for a gut check, and poring over data to determine those firms that have both the ability to manage plan assets successfully and the flexibility and fortitude to weather the next set of financial hurdles. Once burned by fraudulent hedge fund managers and market illiquidity, they are twice shy about recommending newer or less well-known firms.
 
This environment is generating some challenging questions in RFIs and RFPs. You are undoubtedly busy resurrecting your own track record, maintaining client, employee and partner confidence, and possibly, most of all, communicating strengths and weaknesses of your performance and portfolios during the last several months.

 

If you are interested in a review of your responses to these difficult questions, please let us know.

In today's ever changing economic environment, the words "hedge fund" are often loaded with negative connotations for investors, with many strategies over promising expectations and under delivering results. Successful hedge funds will need to differentiate themselves from the crowd and highlight organizational expertise and realistic expectations. Now it is more important than ever to increase your visibility to potential investors - ensure they know who you are, what you do, and at the end of the day what sets you apart from your endless competition. Obvious? Of course. But achieving this difficult feat, unfortunately, is hard to do.

 

The best way to reach the broadest set of both direct investors and consultants is through industry databases. But again, more questions! Which databases are best for your particular strategy? How do you start, let alone complete the lengthy registration process filled with a multitude of quantitative and qualitative questions? Once the initial population is complete, databases then demand monthly and quarterly maintenance. You may complete one database but there are still dozens more out there to populate and maintain. What is involved in ensuring that your data is current and precise? And besides this complex operational upkeep, there's a little thing called managing your strategies that can be done on the side.

There are two ways to solve this dilemma. You need to decide whether you will use a "build" or "buy" approach. Do you want to devote internal resources to the process, or would you prefer to partner with an industry expert?

Our team of experienced investment management marketing and database professionals is intimately familiar with more than 50 industry databases. As a result, we are able to access and populate quickly and accurately the very tools which may be key to increasing your assets under management in this difficult economic environment. Doing this yourself is, of course, possible but represents a costly and time-consuming process. By allowing A.S.A.P. to provide accurate and timely information to the many industry databases on your behalf, you are able to make better use of your own staff, saving you both money and time. And, as we like to say, it's about time ~ yours!