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Bridgewater is a fascinating case study of leadership and organizational behavior. While it is unique in many ways, questions about judging the firm apply equally to others.

This wide-ranging posting gives perspective to the challenge of determining an asset manager’s “pedigree” and how assessments of it can go awry.

A simple question can reveal embedded expectations regarding future performance. Regular use of it can improve manager selection processes.

In the stylized model, both asset managers and allocators add value for the owner of an asset that chooses active management. To deliver on that possibility, those at each level need to differentiate themselves in the methods employed.

A thoughtful paper offers perspective on the changing nature of performance persistence in alternative investments and some recommendations for changing manager selection practices.

Information about performance gets sliced and diced in innumerable ways. Additional quantifiable attributes of asset managers have also been studied, but other factors (ones that really matter) are difficult to analyze.

This fourth in a series of postings takes a broader look at some of the precepts of anthropology as they apply to the craft of due diligence.

What length of time makes sense when you are evaluating the performance of an asset manager? A research survey makes judgments in response to the industry’s standard frame.

Due diligence encounters are dominated by impression management. Those doing the work need to be skeptical and employ tactics that will go past the narrative to add value.

Among the challenges for those evaluating investment strategies and managers is not being fooled by changes in relative valuation that may be transitory.

You’ve probably seen colors used to categorize manager performance, in normal practice and in response to regulatory mandates. A few thoughts on the implications of those hurdles.

The outcome of due diligence encounters depends on the quality of the questions that are asked and the conduct of the interviews. Some recommendations in that regard close out this series.

Two articles from more than twenty years ago offer tactics for those doing due diligence that are just as important as they were then (and yet are still somewhat rare).

An examination of Pimco prompts a series of questions that get at important due diligence and manager selection considerations.

How can outside research on uncommon topics provide insight for the manager selection process? This is the second of two related postings.