Diane Harrison

This article was authored by Diane Harrison. She principal and owner of Panegyric Marketing, a strategic marketing communications firm founded in 2002 and specializing in a wide range of writing services within the alternative assets sector. A published author and speaker, she has over 20 years' of expertise in hedge fund marketing, investor relations, sales collateral, and a variety of thought leadership deliverables. http://www.panegyricmarketing.com.

A universal theme in alternative assets is investor money looking for a place to land.  Uncommitted cash, underperforming assets, and professional laggards throughout the alternative channels all contribute to a common investor desire to find purposeful options to meet their objectives. It should be a marketer's dream: money wanting to be placed and hungry managers actively seeking new investor partners.  So why is the connection missing between the two?

So much water yet so little to drink

Investors are clearly voicing their desire for smaller managers who can provide returns that outpace the lackluster performance of the alternatives industry establishment. Northern Trust's recent Wealth in America Survey (2012) profiled 1,700 wealthy households across the U.S. to understand what is important to them. Some of the key findings included that 63% are willing to take a calculated risk, 52% are always looking for a new investment, and 30% are now more likely to seek out alternatives than they were five years ago.

Smaller managers lacking in-house ......................

To view our full article please login

This article was published in Opalesque's New Managers a top-down monthly analysis, news and research publication on the global emerging manager space.