Wanting an LP Midas List

I recently had a brief email exchange with a limited partner, whose institution is looking to hire a new professional. He asked if I had any good suggestions, so I put it on my mental list of things to do while flying back to Boston (right after taking a nap).

But here’s what I learned somewhere over South Dakota: I’ve got no idea. This isn’t to say that I don’t have good relationships with dozens of LPs, or that I couldn’t identify scores more in this particular institution’s geographic region. Instead, it’s to say that I don’t really know who’s a “good” limited partner in terms of actual performance. It was kind of a startling revelation, given that I’m paid to know such things.

For starters, most institutional investors do not release aggregate alternative asset performance. Some of the public ones do, but that’s really just a drop in the bucket of endowments, private foundations, corporations, foreigns, etc. And even in the cases where we do know institutional performance, we have no idea as to who at each institution actually “led” the due diligence. And this gets double-complicated when consultants are involved.

Maybe what we need is a Midas List for limited partners. Not only to help general partners, but also to help limited partners on the prowl for help. Not exactly sure how we’d do, but I’m open to suggestions…