News

Law

Asset Management

Investment Banking

Wealth

Hedge Funds

People

Newsletters

Events

Lists

View

Heralding the era of the freelance fund manager

Asset management firms cram their expensive buildings with expensive staff. If they got rid of both, everyone would be better off – even the staff

Heralding the era of the freelance fund manager
Photo: Getty Images

As a callow and innocent youth, I once asked the chief executive of a large asset management firm, why he liked fund management so much. He said: “Son, it’s inside work with no heavy lifting.”

Self-deprecation doesn't come better than that. Fund management is one of the greatest businesses you can be in. In a world where the word "banker" is spat out as a casual insult and has become a byword for usury and excess, fund management has gone largely unmaligned.

WSJ Logo