The Fee-based Winter 2011 Semi-annual Report

Traditional long-only portfolios seem to be giving up some space in the private client market to a range of alternative investments that have the potential to diversify risk while at the same time rewarding risk over the long term. Investor Economics has been following the hedge funds market for a number of years, and we felt it was time to move beyond that asset class and take a preliminary look at the bigger picture of alternatives and the individual investor. The special research feature in the soon-to-be-released Winter 2011 edition of The Fee-based Report looks at the alternative asset market from a number of angles and reaches the conclusion that, despite some setbacks and bad actors, this $20 billion market is set to move from the wings to centre stage. In other sections of the report, the issue of an aging and more conservative investor population is a common theme, whether it relates to the sale of universal life policies, the revenues in the trust business, or the trend towards income portfolios in fund wraps.