Innovative Thought Leadership And A Self-Examination Of Your Fund

Investment consultant gate keepers for institutional investors such as plan sponsors, endowment, foundations and family offices in their due diligence vetting of money managers are on the lookout for more than just acceptable performance and stable back-office operations. They want the portfolio managers that make their recommended lists to be stand-outs from their competition. So, one of the traits they look for is innovative thought leadership, capably delivered.

A conceptual sell is required. How good is yours?

Thought leadership is based on a hedge fund’s opinions, not its data. While good performance is needed to attract and retain investors, performance, or any related data, does not equate to thought leadership. The key element of thought leadership recognition for a hedge fund is at a product-specific level: the investment beliefs and investment process that differentiates a firm’s strategy implementation from others. This requires having people understand and buy into how you invest, and to know you for this. This product-specific brand identity is vital to asset raising because your firm’s opinions about investment strategy and approach are key considerations in investor due diligence.

The core content needed is a cogent and compelling articulation of the fund’s investment beliefs and investment process, delivered both in written and verbal marketing content. Using this as its ‘building block’ content, a hedge fund can decide which key selling messages to emphasize in industry conference participation or speaking with the financial trade press in pursuit of public recognition for the intellectual acumen of management regarding its approach to portfolio management.

The success of your opinion-based communications marketing action plan is dependent upon what you say, how you say it, how you disseminate the communications content throughout the selling cycle (from verbal presentations to written marketing collateral and the answers to essay questions in RFPs), and how you get public recognition for the intellectual acumen of management regarding its portfolio management.

To give your hedge fund a communications marketing check-up begin by asking yourselves these five questions:

1. How well are we communicating a clear investment philosophy and well-articulated process?
2. Is the philosophy and process story being effectively told, and in enough detail, throughout the selling cycle by our portfolio manager and salespeople?
3. How consistent is the story we deliver in all written and verbal communications?
4. Have we figured out what steps to take to reduce the odds of a prospect messing up retelling our story to others, and how have we implemented this?
5. How are we getting third-party endorsement for our investment strategy implementation through participation as a panelist or speaker at industry conferences and in the financial trade press?

If you are not fully comfortable with your answers a rethink of your storyline for communicating the investment beliefs and investment process of your fund, and dissemination of that image-shaping information, should top your To Do List.

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© 2025 Frumerman & Nemeth Inc.

Bruce Frumerman is CEO of Frumerman & Nemeth Inc., a 37-year-old financial communications and sales marketing consultancy that helps financial services firms create brand identities for their organizations and develop and implement effective new marketing strategies and programs. Frumerman & Nemeth’s work has helped money management firm clients attract over $7 billion in new assets, yet they are not third-party marketers.

Frumerman & Nemeth is internationally recognized for its work in crafting for clients the beyond-the-numbers story of how they invest — content that investment committees actually discuss, debate and vote on behind closed doors when considering firms on a short list for potential investment. Importantly, this is required due diligence content that cannot be communicated in pitchbook format.

Frumerman & Nemeth’s work also includes providing strategic consulting on product and strategy-specific branding, crafting the required strategy-specific content detail and designing and producing the marketing tools needed to make it through the two-month to two-year institutional selling cycle. Clients also employ Frumerman & Nemeth to help promote the intellectual acumen of management — helping them get speaking opportunities, write and give speeches as panelists or stand-alone speakers at industry conferences, and through media relations marketing services.

Mr. Frumerman can be reached at info@frumerman.com, or by visiting www.frumerman.com.