Hedge-fund firm looks to return to its roots as a HNW investment consultant. Dalton Investments Los Angeles-based alternatives manager Dalton Investments has launched Dalton Advisors, an investment-consulting service for wealthy investors.

Back to basics

Dalton Investments in fact started out managing separate accounts for high-net-worth families in the late 1990s, says Steven Persky, co-founder and CEO of Dalton Investments and managing partner of Dalton Advisors. "But as the interest in hedge funds grew dramatically our business changed and we didn't really promote the high-net-worth business."

Dalton Advisors, technically a division of Dalton Investments, is meant to help the firm get back into the business of managing investment portfolios for high-net-worth families in a direct-to-client business model.

With investment minimums of $1 million, Dalton Advisors says it will use low-cost, tax-efficient funds to create customized separately managed account portfolios. For the most part Dalton Advisors employs index funds, especially exchange-traded funds, to fill out portfolios -- though they'll also supplement them with hedge funds or "interesting" equity strategies, says Persky.

Dalton Advisors director Laura Zimmerman, says that a long-term view, diversification and asset allocation based on client objectives should drive returns. "We are not interested in buying the hottest stocks or trying to predict the direction of a market in the short-term."

Zimmerman recently joined Dalton Advisors from Los Angeles-based Payden & Rygel, where she was a managing principal and portfolio manager.

Dalton Investments manages about $1.1 billion. Its equity strategies are Japanese management buyout, Chinese hedged, Japanese long-only and global and global small-cap hedged.

In addition to its base in Los Angeles, Dalton Investments has offices in Tokyo and Shanghai. -FWR

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