Institutional Investor's Alpha Magazine - October 2007 - (Page 55)

SMALL FIRMS’ FAVORITE PROVIDERS Small hedge funds rate the service of boutique providers such as Merlin Securities higher than those of bigger firms, according to our survey of managers with less than $1 billion in assets. BIG FIRMS’ FAVORITE PROVIDERS The voting from hedge fund managers with $1 billion or more in assets shows that the competition is fierce among firms that are servicing the biggest hedge funds. Rank 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 Firm BDO SEIDMAN ROTHSTEIN KASS & CO. GOLDSTEIN GOLUB KESSLER EISNER DELOITTE TOUCHE TOHMATSU PRICE MEADOWS GOLDMAN, SACHS & CO. ADMIRAL ADMINISTRATION CITCO FUND SERVICES SS&C TECHNOLOGIES OGIER MAPLES AND CALDER WALKERS SEWARD & KISSEL SIDLEY AUSTIN KLEINBERG, KAPLAN, WOLFF & COHEN SHARTSIS FRIESE AKIN GUMP STRAUSS HAUER & FELD Rank 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 Firm ROTHSTEIN KASS & CO. BDO SEIDMAN DELOITTE TOUCHE TOHMATSU ERNST & YOUNG PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS GOLDMAN, SACHS & CO. MORGAN STANLEY FUND SERVICES CITCO FUND SERVICES UBS HSBC ALTERNATIVE FUND SERVICES OGIER MAPLES AND CALDER WALKERS SIDLEY AUSTIN SEWARD & KISSEL AKIN GUMP STRAUSS HAUER & FELD SCHULTE ROTH & ZABEL ACCOUNTING ACCOUNTING ADMINISTRATION ADMINISTRATION LAW — OFFSHORE LAW — OFFSHORE LAW — ONSHORE LAW — ONSHORE PRIME BROKERAGE MERLIN SECURITIES MORGAN STANLEY GOLDMAN, SACHS & CO. CREDIT SUISSE BANC OF AMERICA SECURITIES PRIME BROKERAGE 1 2 3 4 5 BANC OF AMERICA SECURITIES MORGAN STANLEY CITI GOLDMAN, SACHS & CO. BEAR, STEARNS & CO. HOW WE COMPILED THE RANKINGS A lpha compiled its 2007 Alpha Awards™ ranking of the top hedge fund service providers based on voting in the spring and early summer by nearly 1,000 hedge fund ﬁrms, which manage an estimated $1.4 trillion. Polling included ﬁrms in the 2007 Hedge Fund 100, our ranking of the world’s 100 biggest hedge fund ﬁrms (67 of which responded). We also tapped directories and industry data sources, contacted hedge fund management ﬁrms from client lists supplied by service providers. We met with service providers in the early spring to discuss changes within their businesses. Hedge funds were asked to rate the quality of service they received for the 12 months ended March 31, 2007, from their accounting ﬁrms, administrators, law ﬁrms and prime brokers. For each type of provider, service quality was broken down into broad attributes, which included a series of speciﬁc points of service. Respondents — whose identities are kept anonymous to ensure their continued cooperation — also rated the importance of each service attribute, the results of which were then used to help calculate the overall winner in each major category, rewarding ﬁrms that do well in the tasks hedge funds prize most. In the accompanying tables we rank only those service providers for which we received a minimum number of responses. For firms to be considered in the overall rankings, they had to be ranked among both small and big hedge fund voters. Only responses from singlemanager or multistrategy hedge fund firms were considered in the prime broker ranking. The Middle-Ofﬁce Services category was not included in the overall administrators’ scores, as not all administrators provide the service. Alpha’s hedge fund service provider survey was conducted by Associate Editor Michele Bickford under the guidance of Director of Research Sathya Rajavelu and Senior Editor Jane B. Kenney, with assistance from Research Specialist Timothy Roberts and Researcher Katie Gilbert. OCTOBER 2007 • INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR’S ALPHA • 55

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Institutional Investor's Alpha Magazine - October 2007

Institutional Investor's Alpha Magazine - October 2007 Contents Letter from the Editor Longs & Shorts Pension Corner: Applied Knowledge The Good Guys: Autism Advocate Interview: Nerves of Steel Cover Story: Ivy League Education Alpha Awards: Top Service Providers: Trying Times Strategies: Passage to India Profile: The Oracle of Irvine Alpha Bytes: Futurama Research Center: Funds of Funds 50 Unhedged: Commentary: Crisis? What Crisis?

Institutional Investor's Alpha Magazine - October 2007

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