Empowering Innovation in Investment Management

We are a professional team empowering investment management innovators by giving them access to seasoned senior executives to assist in developing and growing the next generation money management firms.

For Investors

We are a professional team empowering investment management innovators by giving them access to seasoned senior executives to assist in developing and growing the next generation money management firms.

For Managers

We are a professional team empowering investment management innovators by giving them access to seasoned senior executives to assist in developing and growing the next generation money management firms.
Welcome to Katalyst Partners
  • Investment management firm focused on developing new, innovative money management firms.
  • Organization that empowers investment management teams by giving them access to seasoned senior executives to assist in developing and growing the next generation money management firms.
  • Potential platform for next generation asset management firms to incubate and grow to reach a new class of empowered investors including institutional, family offices and high net worth individuals.
  • Seasoned team with deep professional money management experience across:
    • Investment management,
    • Distribution, and
    • Business management
Our Opportunity
Little innovation. Compared to the fields of Biotechnology, Big data, Information Technology and Medicine, there has been very little innovation in investment management strategies in the last 20 years:

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  • Use of Machine learning? Big Data? Mostly, NO
  • Use of New Quantitative Techniques for Asset Allocation, Risk Management and Security Selection? NO (most investment products use the same old factor based models or the same old statistical and risk modeling techniques featuring the same old static correlations, all of which were proven faulty in 2008)
  • New Products for 401(k) and Defined Contribution markets, which are the areas of growth in the institutional investment world? NO (the big ‘innovation’ has been the development of target date funds, which mostly take into account an individual’s time horizon to determine the acceptable level of risk in order to set the equity-bond composition of a fund – so basic!)
  • New Products for Defined Benefit pension market (another large component of the institutional investment market)? NO (the recent “fad” has been the juggling of long-term bonds allocation into liability-oriented investments, i.e. higher percentage in bonds for plans with fewer ongoing liabilities, and matching the term of those bonds to the expected term of the expected underlying payments- sounds just like the SAME OLD target date funds or the well established notion of asset-liability management!)

 
Cut. Cut. Cut. Dramatic across the board cuts in R & D at all the major asset management firms:

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  • Significant reduction in internal products: If AUM wasn’t increasing the product was abandoned resulting in a concentration of simple products that “chase returns” but cannot deal with any market fluctuation.
  • The Volcker Rule – classifies seed capital invested in new products to develop a track record in the same risk category as proprietary trading capital. This actively discourages new product development.
  • This results in a desperate need for new, innovative asset management products to feed enormous distribution networks

 

 

Pressure. Competitive pressures are pushing the asset management world from all directions:

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  • Decreasing attractiveness of active long-only equity products and movement to passive ETF’s is eating away at margins
  • Poor returns have decimated Absolute Return products
  • Large institutions have increased in-house asset management resulting in decreasing traditional investment product demand
  • Pressure to increase investment returns concurrent with movement toward liability driven investing

 
Feed the beast.

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  • Asset management firms have grown by merger and acquisition into large multinational financial institutions.
  • They have developed broad international distribution networks across multiple channels.
  • Yet this growth has resulted in one gigantic problem: A lack of product to feed through those vast distribution networks. It’s similar to the problems faced by large multinational pharmaceutical companies.

 
Desire. Desire for early stage managers due to

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  • Higher returns (It’s statistically proven that smaller newer managers have higher returns)
  • Often unique differentiated products (not just another “me too” product)
  • Capacity availability

 
Barriers. Barriers to investing in early stage managers:

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  • Often unproven strategies
  • Significant concern with risk management – Investors today are willing to forgo return for risk management
  • Significant concern with fraud risk – the byproduct of Bernie Madoff – investors are much more hesitant to try a new manager

 

We Provide

Leadership & Mentoring

We have been through the trenches. We are a highly experienced team of seasoned senior executives from the investment management world and have all had extensive experience in developing new asset management strategies, products, and firms. We know what you’ll face because we have faced it before.

Product Development

Developing a cool model which looks great on a back test is not the same as a successful financial asset management product. In fact you’ve probably heard the saying “I’ve never seen a bad back test.” (We always say that.) We know how to make the leap from exciting model to a real financial money management strategy. It’s a big leap and we never ever underestimate the difficulty.

Oversight

In some cases we provide oversight and manage that through independent relationships which provide investors with an additional comfort level. Remember, for the investor, a new manager is all about a peaceful night’s sleep: independent risk oversight with built in independent checks and balances that match the nature of the product and the risk expectations.

Distribution Strategy

Haven’t you ever asked yourself, why this investment strategy which might seem mediocre has amassed such a large AUM and yet this other product with a far better risk/return profile has much lower AUM? Frequently, the answer is distribution. Having the right distribution strategy to us means matching the characteristics of the product to a particular market and then getting the right distribution deal to ensure that everyone’s incentives are aligned and match the nature of the product.

Risk

Risk is a funny word because it means something different to everyone. To us it only means one thing: a peaceful night’s sleep. We help new products integrate risk directly at the early product development stage. We believe risk management is essential to product development – not just an afterthought. Market correlations move, they breathe, and financial asset management products need a level of risk management to deal with the real world, not the pretend one. However, not all risk is the same and not all strategies fit a certain risk profile. Certain products may be tailored for a high risk and high return profile while others may be structured differently. It’s a matter of designing the risk profile and the product together so they fit and match the intended market.

THE LATEST NEWS

Blog Posts

Increasing productivity to get tasks  done faster and easier.

Increasing productivity to get tasks done faster and easier.

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Broker-dealer owner indicated in $17  million dump

Broker-dealer owner indicated in $17 million dump

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