10 Rules for Marketing Alternative Funds

10 Rules for Marketing Alternative Funds

When it comes to managers of alternative assets, it seems there’s a bit of a trust problem. According to a recent CFA Institute survey, for example, trust in hedge funds was 59% while trust in other alternative investment managers was only 60% among institutional investors. Those numbers come in far below institutional investors’ trust in mainstream managers, which stands at 72%.

So what can alternative asset managers do to build trust while maintaining compliance? Adam DiPaolo of Ascendant Compliance Management, a CSS Company, and CFA Institute’s Sidney Hardee have written a guidepost with 10 commonsense rules, including:

“Never use misleading performance results, third-party rankings, or awards in marketing materials. That means always deduct advisory fees, disclose the limitations of the benchmark used, and explain whether the performance results are hypothetical, backtested, or actual. In many cases, the same results, rankings, or awards can be included as long as they are accompanied by adequate disclosures.”

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