Equinox Asset Management: Starting Fresh

After a two-year absence from the financial industry, Tom Henne evaluated his options and determined that he could exploit his knowledge of the inner workings of pension fund business and start a new firm, Equinox Asset Management (Equinox). Despite a recent article that decried the ability of pension funds to provide returns that did no more than mirror the average index, Henne believed his fund could beat the market or achieve alpha. He proposed that this success could be had by differentiating the Equinox fund in several ways from the typically large and well-branded funds of banks and insurance companies. Thinking he still had significant time to mull over the details, Henne was surprised to receive a phone call from a local company wanting him to do a presentation on Equinox at their offices. Henne had only one week to decide the size of his fund, finalize his fee structure, identify his positioning and marketing strategy, and evaluate an appropriate client base. But most of all, he wondered whether the idea for his fund was even plausible.