School Endowments Wild About Hedge Funds

Some university endowments have gone hog-wild over hedge funds, with allocations that far exceed the single-digit percentages of all other institutional investors. Hope you're sitting down for this: According to figures fromNational Association of College and University Business Officers,The College of Woosterin Ohio has a whopping 82% of its portfolio in hedge funds. Following the leader wereAlfred University(79%),海洋Biological Laboratory(65.5%) andYeshiva University(65.4%).Infovest21, which tallied the data, said, overall, 431 endowments put money in hedge funds in 2005, up from 390 in2004, with six of them allocating 50% of their portfolio, 33 putting in more than 30% and 90 setting aside 20% or more.Infovest21also found that seven increased their allocations to hedge funds, while three cut them. The hedge fund managers mostly likely to capture the fancy of endowments, according to Infovest21, areOch Ziff Capital Management,Indus Capital Partners,Standard Pacific Capital,Farallon Capital Management,Tudor CapitalandMaverick Capital Fund. The favorite among funds of hedge funds includedCommonfund,Private Advisors,Pine Grove Associates,Arden Asset ManagementandK2 Advisors. The secret to success: "If you have a relatively conservative strategy that is truly hedged and good overall business acumen, endowments will be attracted to you," a manager with one of the favored funds toldInfovest21.