With the funds of funds industry in its own state of flux the passing away of its founding father Georges Coulon Karlweis at the age of 84 makes us think about the origin of our industry.
A major figure in the world of finance and the right-hand man of the late Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Georges played a key managerial role at Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild in Geneva for several decades.
In 1969, Georges set up Leveraged Capital Holdings, the first fund of hedge funds in the world. Forty two years ago, the idea of allocating across several hedge fund managers to create a specific “asset class” was revolutionary and allowed more investors to access hedge funds.
An individual stock’s specific risk can be mitigated through the creation of a diversified portfolio, and this discovery was crucial in developing equities as the asset class that we know...