Finalternatives – \u201cSmaller managers are better managers,\u201d said Samuel \u201cQ\u201d Belk of Cambridge Associates, the investment consultancy advising on institutional assets worth about $3 trillion.<\/p>\n
Speaking on a consultants panel during the recent FINforums Annual Hedge Fund Summit in New York, Belk said all consultants faced the concern that mega funds were merely asset gathering and that ‘multi-strategy’ was simply another way of saying ‘style drift’ while smaller managers were \u201cin that sweet spot…giving you their best returns in the first two or three years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cambridge, he said, is \u201calways on the hunt for smaller managers,\u201d a view echoed by his co-panelist Neil Sheth, director of hedge fund research at NEPC:<\/p>\n
\u201cOf the funds that we recommend,\u201d said Sheth, whose firm advises on about $700 billion ($60 billion in hedge funds and private equity), \u201c40% of them are under $1 billion…and some of them, we start.\u201d<\/p>\n