FS Associates | Management
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Investment Manager Search and Evaluation


We use our proprietary database of investment talent to locate the ideal specialist for direct mandates, sub-advisory relationships or multi-manager funds. Over the past two decades, we have compiled qualitative and quantitative information on investment managers around the world – in developed markets as well as in emerging and frontier countries, supported by regular on-site visits to these firms.

It is our long –term experience in researching firms in the emerging market world that has given us a major edge. The number of such firms has grown as emerging market asset management sectors have developed. Most of these firms focus largely on their domestic markets for clients and do not have the knowledge or resources to present themselves effectively to developed market institutional clients. These managers tend to be "below the radar screen" of leading investment consultants.

Money management firms around the world are continually faced with increasing pressure to show above-average investment performance over an extended period of time. Coupled with this challenge is the task of keeping costs under control. This dilemma keeps all but the largest firms from establishing the necessary global investment research infrastructure to maintain a competitive edge. The majority of asset management firms are thus forced to tackle the challenge in a different manner: by focusing on their areas of specialization, redirecting all of their internal resources to these areas, and complementing their own strengths with the expertise of others. The answer is outsourcing. By combining one's own strength with the expertise of others, the client can obtain a genuine value-added service.

FS Associates offers access to thousands of different U.S. based investment managers. The firm's large proprietary databases open the door to a wide range of different styles in equities and fixed income expertise, not limited to US markets. The vast talent pool of US based investment managers includes many whose expertise is in the international and global area as well as in emerging markets.

Over the years we have built a proprietary database of boutique money management firms with many of them being not well known to the local investment management consulting community. Many of these firms manage less than US $1 billion and could be categorized as Emerging Managers. While these fund managers may be relatively small in size, they nonetheless possess a deep and strong investment management infrastructure as well as a dedicated business culture. A growing number of the money managers found in our proprietary database are located in emerging markets.

Over the past two decades, we have compiled qualitative and quantitative information on equity managers in emerging and frontier countries, supported by regular on-site visits to these firms. The number of such firms has grown as emerging market asset management sectors have developed. Most of these firms focus largely on their domestic markets for clients and do not have the knowledge or resources to present themselves effectively to developed market institutional clients. These managers tend to be "below the radar screen" of leading investment consultants.

FS Associates provides the client with an individually tailored program, based upon specific needs and constraints as determined by a detailed investment policy statement. The managers are then selected according to specific quantitative and qualitative criteria. Information about the managers is then input into a state of the art computer system, which, when combined with the vast databases at FS Associates' disposal, returns a custom-selected list of suitable traditional US-based managers.

Our services are of particular interest to foreign entities looking for US based money management expertise be it for direct mandates, sub-advisory relationship or for multi-manager funds.

In detail we provide to our clients we following services:

FS Associates not only possesses the technical ability to find the ideal U.S. based investment management resources, but as a direct result of a long history of cross-continental cultural bridging in finding the right match for any particular client, is also aware of the distinctive needs of its foreign counterpart.

Over the past several years our firm has consulted and continues to consult with both U.S. and foreign institutions on numerous projects, in the areas of cross-border business consulting, international private banking, and product development including: