Family Offi ces and Foundations
Both family offi ces and foundations are typically long-term, resultsorientated
investors and have shaped the institutional universe
through innovative and extensive use of hedge funds within
their investment portfolios. As shown in Fig. 4, family offi ces and
foundations make up a signifi cant proportion (11%) of the European
investor universe, making them a valuable source of capital for
managers as they continue to build large and diversifi ed hedge fund
portfolios. The average allocation to hedge funds of a Europe-based
family offi ce has fallen from 14.2% in 2007 to 12.2% today, as they
seek opportunities in other areas of their portfolios such as private
equity. Family offi ces nonetheless remain good targets for hedge
funds as they are known to have accumulated large and diverse
portfolios of small and emerging managers and niche strategies.
Foundations have been steadily increasing their exposure to hedge
funds over the past fi ve years – from 7.6% in 2007 to 11.4% today.
This commitment to hedge funds, despite the crisis of 2008 and the
return to poor performance in 2011, highlights that foundations view
hedge funds in a very positive light and seek to add hedge funds to
their portfolios for long-term sources of alpha.