Hedge Funds Investment Products

News

Asset Management M&A Up 33% in Third Quarter

Divestitures Account for 40% of Deals

Hedge Funds Suffer Worst Monthly Performance in a Decade

Average Fund Down Between 5% and 9% in September

Fitch Increases Fund of Hedge Fund Scrutiny

Increased Investor Redemptions Could Dramatically Alter Risk

Private Equity Firms Acquire Neuberger Berman for $2.15 Billion

Bain Capital, Hellman & Friedman to Hold Equal Shares

Hedge Fund Managers Face Pay Cut

Poor Market Performance Hurts Bonuses

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Articles

GLWBs Tied to Target-Date Funds, Managed Accounts

Taking dead-aim at Middle America, Allstate Corp. has added guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits to its target funds. The product, 'Guaranteed Lifetime Income,' follows a number of guaranteed minimum lifetime withdrawal benefits linked to managed accounts aimed at the high-net-worth.

Hungry Alpha Seekers Chomp Up ETFs

Sharp money managers love market volatility. While some investors get squeamish by daily, 200-point rises and drops in the market, alpha-seeking managers are using exchange-traded funds' long and short capabilities to garner hedge-fund like returns on any given day. And now, increasing numbers of sophisticated investors are flocking to these types of funds, particularly exchange-traded notes, with 57 new ETNs launched in the first half of the year, according to State Street Global Advisors' '2008 Mid-Year Exchange Traded Fund Report.'

Wealthy Investors Grow Pessimistic

As the stock market continues to stumble along, high-net-worth investors are becoming increasingly pessimistic about the economy and dissatisfied with the performance of their financial services providers. 'When times are going well, people don't complain about fees, they complain about softer stuff, like how they don't think their adviser is attentive enough,' said Walt Zultowski, senior vice president of research and concept development for The Phoenix Companies and author of the '2008 Phoenix Wealth Survey.'

SEC Helps Boards Get Over The Enigma of Trades

The Securities and Exchange Commission issued guidance last week for fund boards of directors in assessing their firm’s soft-dollar practices. The SEC said it was issuing the guidance a full two years after the limitations it put on soft dollars in 2006, restricting it only to research, due to rapidly evolving market and trading practices. True enough, there are wide discrepancies among brokerages today, due to rapidly evolving markets, trading practices and electronic crossing networks. Fund companies have until Oct. 1 to comment on the SEC’s guidance. The Commission outlines numerous considerations for boards, which must rely on reports from top management, auditors, counsel and chief compliance officers in assessing day-to-day trading systems.

Regulators Aim to Stop Spread of Rumors

Federal regulators are cracking down on the potential spread of false and misleading rumors that could potentially affect market conditions. While rumor mongering is not a widespread problem in the financial industry, a few high-profile cases-the SEC investigating 50 hedge funds last week for potentially spreading rumors on the fall of Bear Stearns and Lehman, and halting shorting Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae-have forced regulators to take a strong public stance against such actions. Then there were the arrests last month of former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin for securities fraud and the April settlement of securities fraud and market manipulation charges by Paul Berliner, a former trader with the Schottenfeld Group.

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