New York-based investment management firm Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisers LLC, founded in 1978, has announced its decision to wind down its operations.
In a letter addressed to clients and partners, George Weiss, the firm’s founder and chief executive, expressed the difficulty of the decision, citing careful consideration of various factors and circumstances. Weiss, 81, mentioned that the firm has diligently wound down the majority of client portfolios.
While a representative for the firm declined to comment on the matter, it’s worth noting that multi-strategy funds like Weiss’s deploy multiple teams to manage money across various investment strategies.
As of mid-2023, Weiss managed $3.1 billion, according to With Intelligence, a figure that reflects the fund’s performance. Despite a 0.6% loss in 2022, Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisers saw a gain of 6% in 2023, outperforming the average multi-strategy, multi-manager fund, which was up 8% last year.
Jordi Visser, serving as the firm’s chief investment officer, has been instrumental since joining in 2005. He previously led a macro portfolio at Weiss before assuming the top investment role. An SEC filing from March 2023 indicated that Weiss employed 119 individuals, with 61 of them serving as investment professionals.
A recent report from Goldman Sachs highlighted a declining investor appetite for various hedge fund strategies in 2024, continuing a trend from the previous year, which marked the weakest year on record for gross inflows. Specifically, interest in multi-strategy funds has waned, with only 16% of surveyed investors planning to allocate to this strategy compared to 31% in 2023. Additionally, 7% of clients expressed intentions to redeem this year, up from 4% in the previous year.
Goldman Sachs attributed this decline in interest to a combination of strong multi-year flows into the strategy and somewhat softer performance in the previous year.
