Lifestyles of the Top Hedge Fund Managers

We know you’re interested in working in the hedge fund industry simply for the bragging rights to stellar returns and the challenge of constantly generating alpha. But it’s always interesting to look at a few of the other rewards of raking in millions of dollars from your success as a hedge fund professional.

Moneylife recently took a look at some of the more lavish lifestyles of the fabulously rich fund managers. The top 500 hedge fund managers reportedly control more than $2 trillion in assets globally. They are, not surprisingly, intensely private. But since many of them date supermodels and buy major real estate properties and sports clubs, the more colorful aspects of their lives are exposed in various publications.

Many live in and around Greenwich, Connecticut. Steve Cohen, billionaire founder and manager of SAC Capital, has a 14-acre estate there, with a 32,000 sq. ft. home complete with an ice-skating rink and two putting greens. Paul Tudor Jones apparently has a 25-car parking lot … underground … at his home.

Among the more colorful stories: Noam Gottesman, who runs GLC Partners in the UK with Pierre Lagrange, likes to charter customized Boeing 737s for his bi-weekly trips to the United States. While Arpad “Arki” Busson, manager at the EIM group, once dated supermodel Elle Macpherson. He is also rumored to have masqueraded as an Italian price to lure actress Farrah Fawcett away from her husband Ryan O’Neil. And American Louis Bacon of Moore Capital, said to be among the world’s top 10 hedge fund managers and worth $1 billion plus, allegedly owns a 435-acre private island in Long Island Sound, a 540-acre farm in Long Island, a 15,000-acre ranch near Ted Turner’s, a grouse moor in Scotland, three private polo grounds, several boats, and a jet.

But it’s the wives that often live a flashier lifestyle than their husbands. Shafi Roepers, wife of Alexander Roepers of Atlantic Investment Management, reportedly has a custom-decorated Gulfstream IV jet which has a Hermes blanket for each passenger seat. She uses the jet to ferry her socialite friends to Paris fashion shows. Her high-end gowns reside in a special refrigerated sycamore closet in her apartment, so that the silk chiffon does not wrinkle.

Are these posh excesses of the uber-rich or reasonable lifestyle expenses, proportional to people in this snack bracket? At what point are a few rewards for a hedge fund job well done justified? Add your comments below.

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