Friday Letter Having too much fund?

Fund of funds, which raise equity from investors and then commit that equity to individual fund managers, first started popping up in private equity real estate during the late 1990s, almost a decade after the birth of the asset class in the US. First, it was groups like Bessemer Trust and TKP Investments who were selling these products to their clients. Then, about five years ago, the concept really started to pick up steam as US firms like Credit Suisse, Metropolitan Real Estate and Fiduciary Trust began launching their own fund of funds vehicles. Today, of course, fund of funds, much like the rest of the industry, have gone global.