Bankrate.com  – Alternative assets are a good diversification tool because they’re generally not correlated to the stock market. This means when the market goes down, alternative assets may go up or stay the same and vice versa.

Large investors such as pension and endowment funds have been attracted to hedge funds because of their reputation for producing high returns. But it’s difficult to tell how successful hedge funds are because the historical data leaves much to be desired.

“They are self-reported. Indexes of hedge fund performance are biased by the fact that those that do poorly go out of business and those that do well stay in business,” says Walt Woerheide, Ph.D., CFP, vice president of academic affairs and professor of investments at The American College in Bryn Mawr, Penn. “And so when you look at the index over time, it’s really an index of those that have done well.”

Read Complete Story

Tags: alternative assets, endowment-funds, investments, investor

UWire – The Washington State University Foundation’s Endowment is starting to snap back. Endowment funds like the WSU Foundation’s are essentially a large pool of money, usually donated by alumni, which is placed in an account with a high rate of return. The interest is then invested in the hopes of yielding money that can then be used for the benefit of the university.

The endowment money is allocated by an investment committee of seven people. The committee divvies the money up into eight different areas, which include hedge funds, U.S. equity and private equity.

WSU Foundation’s Endowment Fund increased by 5.8 percent from April 1 to June 30, tying off the 2009 fiscal year. The endowment increased another 3.4 percent in July. This fiscal year’s endowment totaled $261.5 million.

Read Complete Article

Tags: endowment-fund, endowment-funds, rate of return

The Financial Standard- The global hedge fund space is undergoing a period of radical change as large hedge funds become institutionalised, new research shows.

According to international strategy consultancy Celent, large hedge funds are undergoing institutionalisation as US pension plans and endowment funds demand players display vigorous operation capabilities to satisfy demanding due diligence requirements.

“Many hedge funds have grown to a size and scope that require managers to run their business more formally. As a result, a redesigned hedge fund organisation has emerged," said Celent.

“With substantial operation infrastructure capabilities and sound internal control and risk management practices in place, many large funds now have much in common with their asset management counterparts."

Read Complete Article

Tags: advisory-group, bad-news, due-diligence-requirements, endowment-funds, infrastructure-capabilities, internal-control-and-risk-management, international-strategy, leon-cooperman, preliminary-results, risk-management-practices, strategy-consultancy, sunday-evening, turnarounds