State poised to directly invest billions in hedge funds








Eric Convey
Managing Editor – Boston Business Journal

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In an effort to avoid millions in management fees, the state pension board plans to invest more directly in hedge funds, rather than through aggregators of hedge funds.

The Massachusetts Pension Reserve Investment Management Board is poised to drop four of the five fund-of-funds managers that have been managing a combined $5 billion and move most of the money to individual hedge funds, state Treasurer Streve Grossman said in an interview with reporters after addressing a gathering of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce 





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Fund of funds are essentially mutual funds that place money with individual hedge funds, sparing investors the difficulty of choosing hedge funds. In return, funds-of-funds charge management fees.

The PRIM board, whose mandate is to seek big returns with a relatively small share of state employee retirement assets, is poised to stick with California-based PAAMCO, the Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company, which has $720 million of PRIM assets under management.

The PRIM board is poised to cut ties with:

  • Arden Asset Management, which has $556 million of PRIM assets under managemen and is based in New York.
  • K2 Advisors, which has $811 million of PRIM assets under management and is based in Stamford, Conn.
  • Grosvenor Capital Management, which has $719 million of PRIM assets of under management and is based in Chicago.
  • The Rock Creek Group, which has $743 million of PRIM assets under management and is based in Washington, D.C.

All the shifts are pending likely approval by an oversight board in a few weeks.

The funds-of-funds working for the state have been charging 84 basis points annually — 0.84 percent of funds under management — to run the money. Those fees are in addition to fees assessed by the underlying hedge funds.

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