Wank & Liptzin Advisory Services

Wank & Liptzin served as the U.S. sub-advisor to Gottex Fund Management, a Swiss-listed alternatives manager that at its peak managed over $9 billion for sovereign wealth funds, public pensions, and insurers. The firm was responsible for selecting and monitoring U.S.-based hedge fund managers for Gottex's multi-manager portfolios, an arrangement formalized through a 2011 sub-advisory agreement (per Gottex regulatory filings, 2011). Gottex handled distribution, operations, and regulatory compliance from its Lausanne headquarters, while Wank & Liptzin provided portfolio construction and manager access from Los Angeles.

The firm constructs portfolios across four broad absolute-return strategies: long/short equity, global macro, relative value, and event-driven. The emphasis is on non-correlated return streams from capacity-constrained managers who are typically closed to new investors or accessible only through negotiated separate accounts. Wank & Liptzin has historically favored managers with a demonstrable edge in security selection or structural market inefficiency over high-turnover tactical trading strategies.

The firm operates primarily as an institutional advisory practice, not a pooled fund-of-funds. During the Gottex sub-advisory period, Wank & Liptzin selected underlying managers for Gottex's commingled fund vehicles, effectively functioning as the investment brains within a larger fund-of-funds platform. Post-Gottex, the firm has shifted toward bespoke advisory mandates, constructing and monitoring concentrated hedge fund portfolios directly for large institutional allocators on a separately managed account or advisory basis.

Co-founders Lloyd Wank and Gary Liptzin jointly oversee all manager selection, portfolio construction, and ongoing monitoring. The two principals have partnered on hedge fund advisory work since the 1990s — well before the firm's formal 2007 founding — and no additional investment partners are publicly identified. This concentrated decision-making structure is typical of capacity-focused advisory firms that manage a small number of deep institutional relationships rather than a broad product shelf.

Compensation structures are not publicly disclosed, but firms of this type typically charge a combination of advisory fees on the notional portfolio size and, when structured as a sub-advisor, may participate in a share of the management or performance fees collected by the fund vehicle. During the Gottex relationship, the economics were likely structured as a sub-advisory fee paid by Gottex out of its own management-fee revenues, insulating end investors from an additional fee layer.

Through the Gottex relationship, Wank & Liptzin's portfolios were placed with institutional clients concentrated in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East — Gottex maintained offices in Lausanne, Hong Kong, and Guernsey. The firm's current client geography is not publicly disclosed, but the founders' professional networks and the institutional investment culture of their mandate suggest continued emphasis on large non-U.S. pensions, sovereign wealth funds, and insurers rather than the domestic U.S. wealth channel.

Gottex Fund Management experienced significant asset outflows and share-price declines following the 2008 financial crisis and a series of industry-wide headwinds for fund-of-hedge-funds products. Wank & Liptzin appears to have transitioned from its sub-advisory role toward direct institutional advisory mandates, though the firm maintains a deliberately low public profile with limited current disclosures. This pattern — a former sub-advisor moving to bespoke advisory work — is common in the fund-of-funds industry when platform economics no longer support the original structure.