Hedge Fund Assets Under Management Continue To March Higher

January 13, 2017

As the investment community continues to debate the role of hedge funds in the future, one thing is for certain, assets continue to flow into this much debated space.

The above chart goes back ten years to show the overall growth of assets in hedge funds. As it would be expected, 2008 saw overall assets under management decline following a difficult market environment. Since that timeframe assets have steadily increased year over year, despite high fees and at times disappointing performance. 2016 was no different with a difficult first half as overall returns underperformed the broader market indices, assets still flowed into this space. Hedge funds will still be a sought after asset class for institutional investors as they provide diversification, bond-like volatility, and low correlation to traditional long-only assets. To remain competitive, hedge funds will have to cut management and performance fees to remain attractive to the largest capital allocators.