Our opportunistic strategies team was established at EnnisKnupp in 2001. It began by researching hedge funds. However, we quickly recognized that the strategies used by hedge funds were often also available from traditional managers, and we sought to expand our research capabilities to include all products that fell outside of mainstream asset allocation approaches. We have worked with clients to place and oversee over $15 billion in hedge funds and other opportunistic strategies.
Our research covers the wide array of strategies not well categorized by a single label. In the 500+ manager opportunistic strategy meetings we conduct annually, we assess a wide range of products, including:
- Real return strategies
- Absolute return strategies
- Global tactical asset allocation strategies
- Multi-strategy funds
- Long/short equity (Market Neutral or not, as well as “130/30”-type products)
- Commodities
- Convertible arbitrage products
- Hedge funds-of-funds
Our Strengths
We have assisted many of our clients in expanding their asset allocation structure to include opportunistic strategies. We also have worked with several of our clients to develop and oversee dedicated opportunistic strategy allocations. We offer our clients an array of proven strengths:
- Unique Philosophy. We view opportunistic strategies not so much as an asset class, but as a series of strategies with their own unique qualities. We seek to understand the qualities the client is seeking and identify those managers best suited to provide that range of qualities.
- Breadth of Opportunity Set. While many consultants limit themselves to hedge funds, we have long taken a broad perspective on this opportunity set. In addition to researching a wide variety of hedge funds, we actively cover those strategies that use “hedge fund-like” strategies without the hedge fund structure.
- Diverse Research Perspective. Our 12-person opportunistic strategies team consists of professionals with backgrounds in trading, academia, valuation and accounting, hedge fund management, as well as consulting. And with one-third of our firm’s 100 investment professionals dedicated to the alternative investment groups, we can thoroughly research and cover hybrid strategies.
- Custom Solutions for Clients. We integrate our understanding of each client’s goals, risk tolerances, risk qualities of existing investments, and structure to customize solutions for them.
- Equal attention to risk and investment edge. While we spend a great deal of time searching for exceptional managers and funds, we spend an equal amount of time dedicated to identifying potential risks – both operational and investment-related.