Peter Moore, head of regulation & compliance, The IMS Group, is not expecting other hedge fund managers to follow George Soros' lead in turning his firm into a family office…

The announcement that George Soros will no longer manage outside investors’ money may well be partly as a consequence of the current volume of regulatory change. The Soros firm would had to have registered with the SEC (by March 2012) along with hundreds of other asset managers, including firms outside the US and here in the UK.  However, as the Soros firm currently comes close to qualifying for the “family office exemption” it only has to return the USD1bn of “external money” in order to qualify.

Few other hedge fund managers are likely to follow suit given the unique characteristics (that the vast majority of the funds under management is family money) of this firm.  In contrast, Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway’s investment vehicle manages the funds of his investor shareholders.  Also, the timing of the change at Soros appears to coincide with other changes within the firm, such as the retirement of the Chief Investment Officer. The firm will continue managing a large amount of money (reported at around USD24.5bn) and will remain one of the largest and influential investors in the world.”