Neil Datta from Forbes Family Trust talking about alternatives investment and future of alpha during COVID19
About: Neil Datta is Head of Due Diligence for the Forbes Family Trust and Co-founder of Meritas. Neil joined Forbes/Optima in 2011 from Arden Asset Management, where he managed due diligence for several multi-billion dollar hedge fund portfolios. Prior to Arden, Neil spent five years in government as a Financial Crimes Investigator for New York State. Neil started his career at Salomon Smith Barney, working in trade settlement and operations for one of the most active investment banks at the time. Talking about diversity, Neil founded Sigma Beta Rho Multicultural Fraternity, which remains one of the largest multicultural fraternities in the US.
Questions:
You have been an Investor for over 20 years starting out at Smith Barney and a now with the Forbes Family Trust. How has your public market investing experience shaped your investment thesis in the family office business?
Can you please talk about what Forbes Family Trust is currently focused on?
Let’s talk about fund manager selection? What qualities do you look for?
Do you invest in emerging fund managers or first time fund managers? Do you have any diversity mandate?
Do you see non-institutional investors moving into later-stage investing since the small cap public equity marketing is shrinking? How can they do this?
During an unusual time like this, how do you approach the liquidity question as LPs, do you think many families may be more averse to illiquidity during these uncertain times?
Has your risk profile changed over the years especially more recently during COVID-19?
If a young Cliff Asness or Ray Dalio walks into your office for fund raise, how do you measure their performance track record?
You are also the founder of Meritas, a virtual portfolio management app for college students. Can you talk about the meritocracy factor built into the algorithm and how it is democratizing long/short equity portfolio management.
How are you maintaining work life balance during COVID19 ? Have you acquired any new learnings during this time?
For more information: https://www.forbesfamilytrust.com/
About Meritas: Meritas is on a mission to democratize access to the financial services industry. Our platform is a user-friendly mobile version of a long/short equity portfolio management system. Meritas users can manage their own virtual hedge funds on their mobile devices while competing for cash and creating a personal investment track record. Employers can recruit our users based on talent and performance, not bias.
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