Aspiriant recently launched a new unlisted closed end fund. The Aspiriant Risk-Managed Capital Appreciation Fund filed an initial registration statement on November 16, 2020 and followed up with amended versions on March 1, 2021 and March 26, 2021. The SEC declared the fund effective on March 30. This post examines the new fund’s strategy and structure.

Aspiriant Risk-Managed Capital Appreciation Fund Strategy

Aspiriant Risk-Managed Capital Appreciation Fund has an investment objective of long term capital appreciation. It plans to allocate its assets among a variety of investment funds. Strategies included in the allocation will include public and private equity, public and private credit, long/short equity , global macro/managed futures, and multi-strategy/relative value strategies.

Each strategy will serve a different purpose within the portfolio. Credit based strategies will focus on less efficient sections of the global fixed income markets, Long/short equity hedge funds and global macro/managed futures strategies will provide exposure to global and domestic equity markets. The multi-strategy and relative value strategies will seek arbitrage profits that are not correlated with broader capital markets.

The fund will consider diversification and potential volatility into account when deciding how to allocate the fund’s capital. The manager selection and monitoring process covers the performance record and reputation of the underlying manager, while also taking into account fee levels. Additionally, Aspiriant will seek to continue adding funds that are not correlated with the funds already in the portfolio.

Fund Structure and Fees

According to the prospectus, Aspiriant Risk-Managed Capital Appreciation Fund is raising up to $175 million in capital. There is only one shares class, and it will not charge any sales load. To invest in the fund, an investor must be accredited.

The investment advisor will charge a management fee equal to 0.50% of net assets. Since the fund invests in a portfolio of hedge funds, acquired fund fees will be a major component of overall costs borne by investors. The underlying hedge funds will have base management fees in addition to incentive fees of 0%-20% of fund profits. The prospectus estimates that acquired fund fees will be 3.29% per year in total.

How do the fees charged by the Aspiriant Risk-Managed Capital Appreciation Fund compare to other unlisted closed end funds? We recently published a whitepaper on fee structures in the unlisted closed end fund space. To access this whitepaper, sign up for a Premium Membership.

About Aspiriant

Employee owned, LA based investment adviser Aspiriant LLC serves as the investment manager. Aspiriant is a full service investment adviser that provides planning, investment management, and comprehensive wealth management services to high net worth families. Additionally, they provide investment advisor services to institutions. They also have several Aspiriant affiliated Mutual Funds. They have 1,700 clients and manage a total of $12.7 billion in AUM, according to their latest form ADV. This new fund is the second tender offer fund that Aspiriant has launched. In a previous post, we discussed the launch of Aspiriant Risk-Managed Real Asset Fund

To learn more about Aspiriant’s unlisted closed end funds, as well as other funds of hedge funds, please visit our Active Funds Page.