Why Asset Management Needs More Emerging Manager Programs

“Attractive investment management organizations encourage decisions directed toward creating investment returns, not toward generating fee income for the manager. Such principal-oriented advisers tend to be small, entrepreneurial, and independent,” saysDavid F. Swenson进来开拓组合管理(并在此引用)

I love the quote above. In fact, in rereading it I’m reminded that at one point in my career (when I was leaving a venture capital job to go to graduate school), I had visions of one day returning to Wall Street to launch an emerging / developing manager program that would allow me to focus on the asset management business... with my venture capital hat on.

The idea of working with upstart asset managers to develop unique structures, strategies and indeed companies to align interests with asset owners in creative ways to build a sustainable asset management business sounds like oodles of fun. After all, it’s in these niche spaces that investors can make lots of money, while changing the very dynamics of the asset management business; in effect leveling a playing field that many have come to view as unfairly biased towards the established asset management community.

I know emerging manager programs often get a bad reputation with mainstream finance types. The latter are displeased that these emerging managers receive preferential treatment -- which is kind of funny because the very point of these programs is to disrupt the cozy, and many would say不公平偏见, treatment that large asset managers receive from pension funds due to the latter’s governance and institutional deficiencies -- but I remain a fan of these programs (or at least in the theory underpinning them). And I also think the criticism is often misplaced and thus warrants a bit of background.这是一个有用的广告从赔:

“The term "emerging manager" goes back at least to the 1980s and often was used to describe undiscovered money managers. In the 1990s, as minority- and woman-owned firms began to open up in larger number, those firms also became classified as emerging managers... The idea was to allow new talent — particularly minority- and woman-owned firms — to gain investment mandates.”

这是一个资产经理的方式describes行业：

“Emerging Manager” conjures the energy, talent and proven alpha potential of smaller investment companies, regardless of ethnicity. The term is no longer a euphemism for “entitlement program.” Today, for many, “emerging manager” has become synonymous with “independently owned” and all the positives typically associated with employee-owned businesses — caring, originality, risk-taking, innovation and hard work by people with a real, long-term stake in their companies.Think local diner with the best food in town and a smiling owner/operator behind the counter, versus the sterile uniformity of a fast-food restaurant.”（重点加了）

I like that analogy. Anyway, my interests in this space seems to jive with this2003年PCA报告，which shows that emerging managers offer remarkable upside (largely because they are not burdened with许多问题that come with scale). And when the institutional investors take stakes in the GP or lock in preferential fees and discounts on future funds (should the emerging manager be successful), the returns can be even more attractive.

毫无疑问，这个空间存在挑战，例如识别冉冉升起的星星，并放置在可持续的商业模式上有助于他们的导师。但那是有趣的部分，对吗？

这是风险资本......用于资产管理业务。就像你需要非常娴熟的风险资本家一样有任何希望赚钱，所以你需要非常聪明的投资专业人士，以确定新兴经理空间中的冉冉升起的星星。（也许是我留在学术界的明智。）简单地说，这些计划have to meet risk-adjusted returns让他们成为可持续发展。

But I think they can.

In particular, I think if institutional investors work together in their emerging manager and seeding programs, pooling resources and knowledge to identify the rising stars, they can champion the kind of asset management business they want to see 10 years from now. It’s a no brainer.

（这就是为什么它可能已经发生在幕后......Dramatic pause for effect。）

总而言之，虽然某些养老基金对其新兴经理计划不满意（这些家伙）我认为有很大的机会来赚钱，此外，将一些机构偏见转移到资产管理业务中的一些机构偏见，以支持资产所有者。