by Dwayne Strocen

Created on: April 22, 2010   Last Updated: April 23, 2010

Due to some recent high profile fraud cases within the hedge fund industry, many investors are seeking greater transparency from their investment managers.  While many managers protect their proprietary trading programs, there is one sure fire way to address this issue.

Fund redemptions are nothing new.  Every recession or bear market sees investors redeeming their fund investments and moving to asset classes which provide a greater degree of safety.  For most, this is the Government Treasury Bill also called the T-Bill.

While reasons for redemptions are as varied as the investment selections themselves, it seems that individual investors are uncertain of their understanding of what their money has been invested in.  While mutual funds are marketed to the investor with a lower knowledge of investment products, the hedge fund has always been the investment choice for more knowledgeable investors or the "Accredited Investor".  But now it seems even this group is calling for the need of greater understanding from their investment managers.

The battle for returns which out perform the index has resulted in many Portfolio Managers refusing to disclose their trading program for fear others will duplicate their trading style.  It is said by many managers that it's this ability to observe unique characteristics in the market place that differentiates their funds performance from the typical returns generated by bottom quartile performing funds and fund managers.  Of course the unregulated hedge fund industry has perpetuated this myth by trusting the Accredited Investor with an above average knowledge of the market and his ability to select the correct investment for their portfolio.  It seems the Accredited Investors does not always posses greater knowledge than their more un-sophisticated mutual fund brethren.  

So that bears the question of how to obtain this transparency to the satisfaction of the investing public?  And the answer is the Managed Account.

Managed Accounts are simply individual accounts opened in the name of the investor.  These accounts are not pooled, yet they are identically structured and managed by the hedge fund Portfolio Manager in the same style as the pooled fund.  The critical difference is the investors ability to see every trading transaction performed in the account by the fund manager.

The popularity of the pooled investment structure is that investors do not have to deposit large

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