Higher Standards may be Welcomed by Hedge Funds

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, one of the nation's most outspoken advocates for increased hedge fund regulation has repeatedly urged regulators and legislators to consider raising the accredited investor standard.

Some hedge funds have now also expressed support for the proposal by the Securities and Exchange Commission that would shrink the pool of eligible hedge fund investors.

The number of households permitted to invest in hedge funds would be reduced by 88% if the change takes effect, according to SEC economists. Under the proposal, only investors worth $2.5 million or more, about 1.3 percent of U.S. households, would qualify. The proposal, which is open to a 60-day public comment period, also prohibits using the value of a primary home to meet the requirement.

"Raising net worth requirements is a critically significant first step toward helping protect vulnerable investors in the higher risk world of hedge fund investment," Blumenthal said in a statement.

"Especially in areas like Connecticut, increasing real estate values have escalated the retailization of hedge funds -- and entitled and exposed exponentially growing masses of middle class investors to hedge funds," Blumenthal said.

Industry insiders agree. "The change is long overdue," said the head of a Connecticut-based multibillion-dollar fund of funds, who declined to give his name because of company policy.

"It's totally appropriate that the SEC should be updating the standard, which has not increased for inflation for many, many years," the fund manager said. The new rule would have "virtually no impact" on the industry in terms of the amount of assets being pumped into hedge funds, he said.

Victor Zimmermann Jr., managing partner of the Stamford office of Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLC, a law firm with many hedge fund clients, agreed that the impact would not be extreme. "The industry has changed quite a bit in the last five or 10 years," he said. "It is much more dominated by institutional money, rather than individuals."

Even hedge fund startups, which historically sought out wealthy individuals for seed money, are now turning to large banks as initial seed investors, Zimmermann said. "It is just fewer and fewer funds relying on individual investors," he said.

Zimmermann said hedge funds probably won't oppose the SEC rule, recognizing that it wouldn't have much impact on the industry and at the same time might satisfy some state regulators such as Blumenthal who have been clamoring for more oversight.