Hedge fund consultant / 3PM references

[heech]

Hi all,

I keep hearing whispers about "bad" third-party marketers and hedge fund consultants. The ones who send you the phone book as their "contact list", charge you 10% of AUM, make false promises to investors, and then fight you for every penny of incentive fees. It's made me very nervous.

So... who are the good ones? Anyone out there worked with any reputable 3PMs and/or fund consultants that they would be willing to recommend?

My sense is these folks are useful for funds of a certain size. I think I fit in that overall profile right now, and would appreciate the help.

 

[bone]

I've done it on four separate occasions in the past, and I just signed a six-month contract with a one of Chicago's leading firms. Unfortunately, every one of them has contract verbage in both the mutual NDA and the actual consulting contract that I cannot mention them in any way without their express written permission for each instance.

So, it's nice work but you can't easily or readily leverage the experience in terms of future promotional efforts.

What got me started in all of this as a sideshow gig was getting a cold call from S&P about five years ago because they found my name on the Bloomberg terminal registry and noticed the Nymex and ICE energy stuff I contributed on. That's alot easier - somebody calls you up for a one hour conference call arranged in advance by S&P, and you can charge them just about anything you want for an hourly rate. But the really juicy stuff I unfortunately can't utter a peep about without risking tort litigation from a firm with deep pockets and a nasty disposition about IP.