We are delighted today to publish ‘Perspectives: Industry Leaders on the Future of the Hedge Fund Industry’ - a major new report about the hedge fund firm of the future.

The paper, which is sponsored by our member firm Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI), is based on candid and wide-ranging conversations that AIMA's Global Head of Research Tom Kehoe and I conducted with 25 of the leading figures in the industry and within academia.

What we found was that hedge fund firms are rapidly transforming their product offerings and how they operate in order to meet the changing needs of investors. These changes include adopting artificial intelligence and other disruptive technologies and partnering with clients on responsible investment mandates. 

Larger firms are increasingly becoming fully diversified asset managers with multiple product offerings at varying fee levels. Our paper highlights how many firms are changing themselves internally, with a growing number of managers becoming more data-focused, relying more on teams of highly quantitative talent such as physicists or engineers and less on one or two ‘star’ traders. We also discussed with the interviewees other notable themes such as fees; succession planning; employee diversity; and “alpha”, “smart beta” and “alternative beta” based client solutions.

There are so many strands to this paper and, I hope, it has something for everyone. What I think it shows above all is that the pace of change and innovation in the hedge fund industry is only going to increase. Hedge fund firms are transforming themselves in order to thrive in tomorrow’s market place. Hedge fund firms have always embraced disruption; the leaders with whom we spoke are committed to making the most of the coming changes in the financial world and are enthusiastic about the opportunities to deliver for their clients.

To read the paper, click here - scroll down for full paper download. As always, don't hesitate to share your feedback about it with us.