A family office spin-off runs a hedge fund that invests like institutions

A manager that spun out of a Canadian family office launched a fund last year that invests like institutions.

Heirloom Investment Management evolved out of a Canadian single family office that CIO Geoff Dover ran from 2008. This is where he originally built the investment strategy, at the request of the family who wanted a strategy that was long-term, had consistent returns of 9-11% and lower risk. The strategy officially launched at the end of 2009 and attracted the attention of other Canadian families. Dover then moved to Dubai with his wife, and there, received interest from GCC-based families as well. So in late 2015, he spun out of the family office to focus on managed accounts for these families, and launched the Heirloom Investment Fund in June 2016.

The strategy itself has delivered 11.3% annualized return (gross) since inception in January 2010, and the Cayman-domiciled fund, which now manages over $200m, has returned almost 4% from its June 2016 inception to the end of May 2017.

The strategy is "cross-asset thematic," Dover tells Opalesque. "Thematic essentially means that we focus on allocating capital to themes. These themes can be generated based on long-term secular trends, or on market dislocations. This takes advantage of the myriad of academic findings that found that 90% of a portfolio's return comes from being allocated to the right macro areas, whereas less than 5% of a portfolio's return comes from choosing the best individual security. Many managers focus 80% of their energy on picking individual securities, whereas we focus the majority of our energy on making sure that our capital is allocated to the right macro areas, or themes."

There are different ways to access each them, he continues, so he......................

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.