MAPs: the Good, the Bad, and the Trendy | Chief Investment Officer

Opera Solutions has found an increasing trend of institutional investors adopting managed account platforms, with projections of the market growing to $100 billion in the next 18 months.

(October 31, 2013) — The managed account platform (MAP) market, including hedge funds and other absolute return strategies, is growing at a triple-digit rate among large institutional investors, according to a survey.

Opera Solutions quizzed 82 institutional investors and managers with more than $1.7 trillion in total assets and found around $72 billion in assets under management in MAPs. The market is projected to grow to $100 billion in the next 18 months.

The survey reported a new generation of MAPs had risen from the 2008 financial crisis: “An infrastructure for large allocators to invest in hedge funds in addition to the aggregation and distribution services.”

The shift is gaining traction even among corporate pensions, with a great preference to funds of hedge funds (FoHFs). The investors and managers surveyed invested an average of 27% to hedge funds, the report found—endowments allocated most heavily at 27% and corporate pensions measured at 7%.

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Forty-five percent of respondents invested through commingled accounts—both hedge funds and fund of funds—and 43% invested through transparent funds. Commingled funds attracted more endowments and pension consultants than public pensions and wealth management firms, which preferred transparent funds.

A majority of investors, 61%, said they enjoyed better transparency when investing through managed accounts. One endowment investor said MAPs allowed for an enhanced insight into managers’ alpha. Other popular advantages included custody and control of assets and better liquidity.

The largest disadvantage of MAPs was cost, the survey revealed. Almost half of the respondents said investing through managed accounts was too expensive—particularly for foundations, wealth management firms, and pension consultants.

Currently, MAP providers estimate the costs to be between 50 and 100 basis points (bps) of the assets per annum, the survey found. When asked what would be a reasonable price for investing, respondents said 17.5bps, or $1.75 million per billion of assets.

“This represents a large disconnect between the expectations of the institutional investors and the vendors,” the report said. “One of the key drivers of fees related to the service providers such as FoHFs is the number of hedge fund-focused professionals employed at a FoHF vs. another firm. This increases the FoHF’s perceived value proposition to clients.”

Opera Solutions estimated an initial investment cost of $5 million to $10 million to create a MAP, with an additional $2 million to $4 million per year to operate. “This magnitude of cost, along with the expertise necessary to create a MAP, will steer the typical investor away from a ‘build’ and more toward a ‘buy’ decision,” the report said.

Respondents then pointed to increased operational complexity and increased burden on internal staff as other big drawbacks to MAPs. The report found investors could be overwhelmed with the amount of data involved with investing in absolute return strategies.

The good news is that it’s not unmanageable: by encouraging a “proper separation of duties among man and machine,” investors can make use of operational systems that organize, analyze, and forecast data from which to draw conclusions, Opera Solutions claimed.

“The best approach to enforce discipline in a process is systemization,” the report said. “There is no increased complexity, just increased volume of data. The use of better-designed tools dominated by the Man + Machine philosophy can overcome this objection.”

Some respondents, 30%, attributed a negative selection bias to their hesitation or difficulty in investing through MAPs. These investors and managers found a lack of access to managers, particularly as top hedge fund managers do not participate in the strategy.

From the results of the survey, Opera Solutions concluded the asset-loading facet of the MAP structure would become commoditized, leading many operators to outsource their technologies. The high price of hedge funds and FoHFs could lead to a leveling of MAP fees in the next 24 months, the report said.

Research from BNP Paribas Securities Services found Australian, Japanese, and Hong Kong investors favour risk budgeting when modifying their investment strategy.

(October 31, 2013) – The financial crisis has forced Asia-Pacific institutional investors to become more conservative in their investment choices, driven by a greater focus on risk management.

BNP Paribas Securities Services’ research into the market found that 63% of the 27 pension funds, insurers, sovereign wealth funds, and other asset owners quizzed agreed the financial crisis has changed their investment approach, with 44% of investors adding their asset allocation had become more conservative.

Fixed income—or assets with fixed income-like qualities—was reported to be an area for increased investment as the region’s asset owners are attracted to the more stable cash flows and less volatile returns.

There was bad news for hedge fund managers too: it emerged that hedge funds were consistently avoided by respondents, following what they perceived to be “weak performance” and issues around fees and credibility in the region.

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Incoming reforms are clearly being prepared for: 60% of the asset owners indicated that regulatory need for risk reporting had “some” or “significant” impact on their organisation, and three-quarters of them are planning on increasing their spending in this area in the next few years.

Risk budgeting—when the investor targets a total level of risk by splitting risk across the portfolio—is now more important for investors in Australia, Japan, and Hong Kong. These investors are seeking increased diversification and looking to introduce more environmental, social and governance factors into their investment strategies, the report said.

Madhu Gayer, head of investment reporting and performance for Asia-Pacific at BNP Paribas Security Services, said that while the Asian economies proved more resilient than most during the financial crisis, it was clear that 2008 was a watershed for asset owners in the area, prompting profound changes in their attitudes towards risk.

“They face a number of major challenges to integrating risk culture into their organisations,” he added.

“Data management, regulatory compliance, reporting, and talent management are all factors contributing to the overwhelming expectation from institutional investors in the region that spending on risk and performance measurement will rise in the next three to five years.”