Investors are paying for hedge funds' reluctance to use hurdle rates

By Chris StevensApril 2024 (Magazine)

Although two years have now passed since the US Federal Reserve started rapidly hiking interest rates, the likelihood that your hedge fund manager will have a ‘hurdle rate’ – a minimum rate of return before performance fees kick in – has not changed. Only a quarter of hedge funds, by our count, have such a threshold in place and the practice does not yet show signs of becoming more widespread, even though the risk-free rate has now exceeded 4% for well over a year.