When it comes to multi-manager alternative mutual funds, everyone is watching which underlying hedge funds get a piece of the pie, because you're only as good as your sub-advisors.

Michael Tamasco Rothschild Asset Management Co-Head

In the case of the newly formed joint venture between Rothschild Asset Management and Larch Lane Advisors, the executives at these firms crossed a pond or two to pick their managers.

According to a recent SEC filing, of the four firms picked so far, one is the $25 billion London-based managed futures specialist Winton Capital Management, which will be running a long-biased equity trading strategy as part of the Rothschild Larch Lane Alternatives Fund. Another is Tokyo-based Mizuho Alternative Investments, which was originally set up in 2010 to provide Japanese pensions and other institutions access into CTA and other types of hedge funds. Mizuho will be running a global macro systematic strategy for the Rothschild fund.

The other managers are Greenwich, CT-based Ellington Management Group, which will run a relative value (statistical arbitrage) strategy and a tactical trading (short-term futures) strategy. Another is New York-based Karya Capital Management, which will handle a global macro discretionary strategy.

Rothschild and Larch Lane could pick more firms as sub-advisors in the future. Larch Lane, which spun out of Old Mutual Asset Management via a management buyout two years ago, has historically focused on seeding hedge funds or early-stage investments and plans to bring some of that expertise to the Rothschild JV as well.

The fund was filed under SEI's Advisors Inner Circle Fund III trust, which SEI launched earlier this year to help hedge funds set up and distribute mutual funds. The investor share class costs 2.86 percent and the institutional share class costs 2.51 percent.

Mark Jurish, Larch Lane's founder, serves as the firm's CEO and CIO, while David Katz leads the firm as President and Chief Operating Officer. He came over from investment consulting firm Rocaton Investment Advisors in 2011.

Rothschild AM, is a subsidiary of the Rothschild bank in France, and has about $5 billion in U.S. assets. The firm has been fairly quiet in the U.S. for some time, but is now trying to build out its presence here.

Baron David René James de Rothschild, the great, great, great grandson of the storied Mayer Amschel Rothschild that the Rothschild family clan dates back to, chairs the firm. Although he's minting his 32-year-old son, Alexandre de Rothschild, to take over for him around 2017.

Michael Tamasco and Daniel Oshinskie also lead the firm as co-heads, with Tamasco having joined three years ago from Lazard Asset Management, another investment firm owned by a French bank, in this case Lazard Frères & Co. 

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