anyone have any insight in what it is like to work at a firm that invests via a separate account with an investment manager?
i recently interviewed at a large institution that is investing from it's principal balance sheet. they use a separate account vehicle with a well-regarded investment manager. they're mostly investing in core assets in US but may expand across the risk spectrum.
I come from the RE investment management world where the firm I worked for had 3 discretionary funds investing in value-add office assets in major US markets. I left about 15 months ago for personal reasons and am now interviewing.
This current opportunity is an interesting one but I don't know what it's like to work at a firm that is really a full step away from the transaction as the investment manager is doing all of the heavy lifting (sourcing, underwriting, diligence, Asset Management, etc).
Does anyone have experience in a position or institution like the one I am describing? It would be great to know about expected comp, exit opportunities in the future, etc.
Thanks in advance..
I have a few other potential opportunities in the mix so trying to learn as much as possible about this particular one so I can make a solid, objective decision.
Thanks!
I think how this job fairs really depends on how much autonomy the investor gave to the investment manager. If they gave the investment manager absolute discretion over their money, then all this job is going to be is investor relations and reporting on the investor side.
If they didn't give full discretion, then you will be more integrated into the day to day of the running of the account (which could actually be interesting).
I managed some debt funds where we were purely LPs and it was boring because all I did was get reports from the GP and then have to write memos to upstream to corporate on what was going on with the investments each quarter.
I also managed a separate account with a foreign investor which had kept discretion over acquisitions, but relinquished control over AM decisions. So we worked very closely together through the investment period to pick our 8 investments, but once that was done, I managed those assets by myself (unless a major decision" like foreclosure, default, etc. were to arise).
This was on the investment manager side, which you've said you've been on before, so you know all of this. But if you think about It, what the investor is hiring the investment manager for is what they don't do themselves. So depending on how much they hired out to the investment manager, that is what this job (on the investor side) is/not going to be doing because this is basically the counterpart position.
PF_CRE thanks for the response / thoughts. Very helpful.
This particular firm & opportunity does have full discretion of the account. I believe they have something like 7 - 10 days to green light a deal after the investment manager brings it to them.
I don't yet know what discretion they have over AM decisions.
I hear you regarding being purely an LP and the reporting-nature of a gig like that. There will undoubtedly be reporting duties and I'm okay with that so long as I catch the upside on the acquisitions and / or asset management side of the deals... or even implementing investment strategy into new markets or asset classes
This particular position is within the Alternative Investments group of a large institution. The alternatives group also covers HF and (non-re) PE.
The way it's been pitched to me thus far is the group is looking for someone to come in and be able to interface with the investment manager regarding deal / asset specific topics (leasing, capex, rents, TIs, etc.) as opposed to the capital markets / cap rates and such (although obviously need to know that stuff, too). Basically, help further vet deals.
Most of the people in the alternatives group seems to have a great sense of real estate as an investment class but maybe not the down-in-the-trenches, bricks-and-mortar experience that you get from acquisitions or asset managing deals while at an investment manager or operator. They seem to be more CFA-types than real estate operators. Make sense?
Additionally, I'm hoping the opportunity would involve helping to come up with strategy for new markets to explore (internationally & domestic) and expanding investment across the risk spectrum (Core -> Value Add -> Opportunistic).
Make sense? Any idea type of comp for a gig or shop like this?
The MD of the Alternatives group invited me to a real nice lunch on Monday as a follow up to my first interview. Hopefully, I'll get more color then.
Thanks again for the thoughts!
So this is more like investment allocation or real CRE PE like investing in real estate firms? If you aren't involved in the transaction at all, what are you doing?
So you would be like the head of acquisitions (but the acquisitions team is outsourced) as your primary role, but then potentially doing some AM work, PM/strategy work, and then some reporting in your spare time.
There are several guys that sort of have weird catch-all, hybrid jobs like that at my life co for various accounts/departments. They are all Senior Associates, Directors or Senior Directors where I work, so they get paid fairly decently.
Really, the only issue with those positions (I had a weird swing spot while at a former company) is that when you want to switch over to something more normal/mainstream, bosses are really reluctant to let it happen because they don't like losing their flex/project person.
makes sense; thanks!
Voluptatem qui aut iste molestiae. Ut iusto rerum voluptatibus ut et praesentium expedita.
Alias id neque tempora vel consequuntur illum vel nihil. Quia amet quaerat dolorem incidunt autem ut tempora. Fuga quibusdam ipsa similique consequuntur. Dolores tempore fuga sint expedita omnis esse.
Voluptates accusamus quam ad molestiae aut. Quo et occaecati mollitia quia non illum. Qui placeat ex sit vel. In laudantium odio hic repellendus.
Et cum rerum numquam velit quam quis. Qui quibusdam in exercitationem voluptatibus. Odit voluptatem laboriosam et occaecati sed aperiam eum. Et quo consequatur consequatur.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...