Our senior research professionals’ experience and industry contacts are key drivers for investment manager sourcing and ideas.  We also have an open door policy for managers to visit our office.

Rocaton has developed a proprietary, web-based enterprise application to capture, organize and warehouse investment manager-related research and evaluation.  In addition to self-collected data generated from approximately 1,300 in-person meetings with investment managers each year, many of the industry’s leading databases (such as eVestment Alliance, Morningstar, Bloomberg, and hedgefund.net) feed into our platform. 

Keeping with our independent structure, we do not charge investment managers a fee for inclusion in our databases, nor do we charge them fees to be included in manager searches for our clients.

Our manager research process typically follows a five-step process:

1. Investment Manager Sourcing – We draw on our research professionals’ industry contacts, internal manager research platform, third party database subscriptions and open door policy to generate investment manager ideas and identify products. 
2. Initial Evaluation - An “early-stage” evaluation of a product is developed, based on our analysis of the firm, product philosophy, process and key professionals.  If it appears there is sufficient viability to the strategy, we continue to the next stage of the due diligence process.
3. Quantitative Analysis - Rigorous, in depth quantitative analysis is conducted on the product over numerous time periods.  Where appropriate, we seek to disaggregate predicted risk through returns-based analysis, holdings-based risk/attribution analysis and other methods.
4. On-Site Due Diligence - We meet with asset managers to drill down into the organization and its investment process.  We typically focus on senior management, ownership/incentive structure, allocation of resources, adherence to style/process parameters, operational/compliance functions and overall stability.
5. Manager Rating - A formal manager/product rating is proposed during one of our weekly Research Review Committee meetings.  After receiving a formal rating, we continue to monitor the strategy via periodic qualitative/quantitative analysis.

We provide clients with detailed qualitative and quantitative analyses of managers being considered for their search and, when applicable, a synopsis of how potential candidates fit into the larger investment structure.  In each case, we facilitate the selection process through participation in manager meetings and additional ad hoc analysis.

Given our structure, our only motivation for including a manager on our recommended list is our high conviction in the strategy and its appropriateness for clients’ specific goals.