Reuters) – Starting a hedge fund was long considered the road to riches for money managers, but the path has become much rockier in the last months.

"It is materially harder to start a hedge fund today than it was two or five years ago," said David Bailin, who heads Bank of America Corp’s alternative investments group, which invests with roughly 100 hedge fund managers.

A few years ago, when wealthy investors wrote checks more easily, their enthusiasm helped assets in the loosely regulated hedge fund industry double to $1.8 trillion in three years. In the boom days, an Ivy League degree plus a stint at a prominent Wall Street investment bank were often thought to be the main ingredients for a successful new fund launch.

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