NASHVILLE, TN, USA, October 23, 2002 - Van Hedge Fund Advisors International, Inc. ("VAN") announced today that it is providing the financial advisory community with free comprehensive information on hedge funds.
The information is contained in a 36-page position paper entitled "Financial Advisors: Their Need For Hedge Funds Accelerates," which can be found at http://www.hedgefund.com/fofs.htm .
According to George Van, Chairman, "the paper provides an easy and painless way for financial advisors to understand hedge funds and their potential use by advisors. It also outlines research showing that clients of advisors currently desire investments with the characteristics of hedge funds.
"Many financial advisors are experiencing significant asset shrinkage during this bear market," Van commented.
"Hedge funds can help them. In the 14.75 years since the beginning of our U.S. Hedge Fund Index data, hedge funds have had total returns of 916% versus 220% for the Average Equity Mutual Fund ("AEMF"), 371% for the S&P 500 and 241% for the Lehman Brothers Aggregate Bond Index. The compound annual returns for these investment categories during the same period have been 17.0% for hedge funds, 8.2% for the AEMF, 11.1% for the S&P 500 and 8.7% for the Lehman Brothers Aggregate Bond Index.
"Hedge funds have been especially useful in protecting investors in down markets. In the 15 losing quarters of the S&P 500 over the same period, U.S. hedge funds have strongly outperformed other investments producing an aggregate return of -9.4% while equity mutual funds have lost -69.7% and the S&P 500 has lost -68.4%.
These and many more useful statistics are available at http://www.hedgefund.com. The position paper mentioned above, as well as a brief information article can be found at http://www.hedgefund.com/fofs.htm.
Van Hedge Fund Advisors International, Inc. is a global hedge fund advisory which constructs portfolios for international institutions and wealthy investors. VAN bases its work on its pioneering research on hedge funds begun in the early 1990s and by drawing on a hedge fund database which it believes to be the world's largest.
[The Company's hedge fund index information is based on information received (and not audited or independently verified) from the hedge funds in an affiliate's databases and may not be representative of all hedge funds. Hedge fund returns are net of fees and performance allocations. The timing of the deduction of such fees and performance allocations may affect the reported performance. Different statistics may be based on different numbers of funds. Averages are not dollar-weighted. Past results are not necessarily indicative of future performance.]
Van Hedge Fund Advisors International, Inc. 800-422-2949
