The Road to AUM

Got performance? Seeking assets to manage? Frustrated by the youthful research professionals across the table who “just don’t get it” while seeming to control billions?

Managers are often challenged by the process of asset gathering. Why doesn’t the market recognize the firm’s value? Where is the AUM? Here is a big idea—let’s ask these institutions why most managers do not have their assets and never will. These pages convey the responses of institutional investors worldwide to these questions and more so that managers can hear their feedback directly and utilize it to create a game plan designed around what matters most to asset allocators.

Managers are a passionate lot. They work hard building firms, track records, and teams. Their strategies are different. They are out in the market, spending precious time and money in the pursuit of institutional assets to manage. Their numbers are better than exponentially larger, well branded, and longer tenured investment management competitors. Managers anticipate this outperformance will make all the difference in asset gathering. However, the assets consistently go to the biggest players in the industry, largely agnostic to asset class, vehicle type, and market cycle. Occasional entrants make a big splash, while the industry remains a pyramid. Few firms make it to their desired capacity.  What makes the difference in institutional investment management marketing and sales?

The Road to AUM provides investment managers and business owners, as well as marketing and sales professionals with a roadmap to institutional asset growth based on observations and comments directly from the institutions themselves. Whether a firm is launching, emerging, stuck in neutral, or moving in a new direction, an aerial view of the road ahead is paramount. This book will tell managers what the market will not. It will explain where to spend time and resources, and where to save them. The book offers a view of the forest through the trees for managers seeking a path to asset growth.

Contents

Acknowledgements    i
Introduction    1

Part I  Out of the Weeds:  A View of the Forest from Institutional Investors
    Chapter 1    Methodology       11
    Chapter 2    The Institutional Lens     19

Part II  Stepping Back:  Getting in Position to Win
     Chapter 3     The Institutional Asset Gathering Marathon     29
     Chapter 4     Firm First: A Pre-Launch Puzzle      37
     Chapter 5     Understanding Prospects     61         

     Chapter 6     Redefining the Competition     69

Part III  Stepping In:  Driving Context and Contact
     Chapter 7    The Firm’s Oeuvre: Creating the Content Library     85
     Chapter 8    Core Collateral      107
     Chapter 9    Tools of the Trade: Databases     117
     Chapter 10  Tools of the Trade: Online Marketing     131
     Chapter 11  A Successful Introduction      151
     Chapter 12  Face Time: The Live Meeting      165
     Chapter 13  Tech in the Room      197

Part IV  Stepping Up:  Staying the Course
     Chapter 14  Establishing Active Voice with Commentary     207
     Chapter 15  Adding Value through Ongoing Communications      219
      Chapter 16  The Institutional Research and Funding Process      237
     Chapter 17  Resource Management      259

Part V  Stepping Out:  Overdrive
     Chapter 18  Games Managers Play     281
     Chapter 19  Recommendations from the Road      297
     Chapter 20  The Road to AUM: A Game Plan for Asset Gathering     313

About the Author    328
The Roadmap to AUM     329
Resources    339