Times Online – Investment returns have been diabolical. Share values collapsed last year by 30 per cent. Commercial property — office blocks and shops — slumped in value. Hedge funds, in which the BBC fund has been dabbling, proved far from damage-proof.

Liabilities have been rocketing because of soaring life expectancy. Bluntly, former BBC personnel have not been dying as early as the fund’s actuaries predicted that they would.

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Tags: actuaries, bbc, hedge funds, investment-returns, liabilities, life expectancy, office blocks, proof, share values

West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – British Virgin Islands based hedge fund manager Tranen Capital took the lead in the Fixed Income – Asset-Backed Lending category for March 2009 with a return of 2.49%.

In addition to the March performance, the fund, ‘Tranen Capital Alternative Investment Fund Ltd.’ posted a YTD (through April) change in NAV of 11.5%.

“Investors are keenly aware of the dismal and unstable returns from the major financial markets. They are demanding alternatives and absolute returns. The Barclay ranking certainly highlights the strategy’s excellent returns but more importantly, it demonstrates that the funds’ performance is non-correlated to financial markets. The Fund’s NAV has increased 27% since July 2008, which has been independently determined by our actuaries, Data Life, and confirmed by our Administrator Commonwealth Fund Services. Additionally, we have also recently delivered our first independent audit to investors," says Kenneth Landgaard, Portfolio Manager.

Tranen Capital’s strategy is to trade life insurance policies in the Life Markets Space, more commonly referred to as the Life Settlements Market. The Life Markets Space enables seniors to sell their life insurance contracts for more than the cash surrender value than they would otherwise receive from the Insurance Company. The credit crisis has helped create more supply as Seniors (65 or older) are looking for other ways to generate cash. In fact, the life settlements market is expected to grow to over $160 billion over the next several years, according to a Sanford Bernstein report.

Arthur Bowen, Director and in-house counsel explained, “The growth in the life settlement market confirms the validity of this asset class and we continue to see great interest from institutional investors. These sophisticated investors understand the strategy and they appreciate that Tranen has gone to great lengths to provide an institutional quality product with a great level of transparency.”

Tranen Capital offers qualified offshore investors access to the Tranen Capital Alternative Investment Fund Ltd. with a 1% acquisition fee and a 20% incentive fee. The minimum investment is $100k.

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Tags: absolute-returns, accredited-investors, actuaries, alternative investment, asset class, british virgin islands, commonwealth fund, hedge-fund-manager, incentive fee, independent audit, institutional-investors, institutional-quality, investment-fund, life settlement, minimum-investment, offshore investors, portfolio-manager, sophisticated-investors, tranen, west palm beach

One of the pleasures of flying out of Newark — and there are so many — is the epic view of Manhattan, that soaring bulwark of affluence and might just off the coast of America.

But on Friday, when we pulled out for points west just after sunrise, I imagined all the brick-and-mortar ambition sinking into the rivers that encircle it. No need to ask why so glum, not with everybody watching their 401(k)’s pirouette down a black hole. Each passing day has brought new nightmares on Wall Street and more shared misery.

Still, by the end of the day, I was sitting on a hotel patio in Los Angeles, staring up the hill at that Hollywood sign and chatting with a smart young woman who markets movies. When the subject of the tumbling economy finally came up, she said that she had indeed been cutting back — by ordering drip coffee instead of a latte.

I waited a bit for the woman to crack a smile, to hammer me for being so credulous, but then I realized she was serious.

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Tags: actuaries, cnet, journalism, ouster, unions, university-of-texas