Nursing vs. bottles: Why are African American breastfeeding rates so low?
Africana.com
By Pamela Appea
Adina Gittens-Smith, a 30-year-old mother of two young boys, knew she wanted to breastfeed even before her children were born. “I read so many things and everything said breastfeeding was good,” said the Maryland school administrator.
Being a health-conscious vegetarian also played a part for Gittens-Smith. “I wanted to make the best nutritious selection for my child,” she says. And joining a local African-American breastfeeding group also helped Gittens-Smith get the information and support she needed.
But as a group, African-American mothers aren’t breastfeeding their babies as much, or for as long, as other mothers, according to a new report out from the federal Department of Health and Human Services. And experts like Dr. Yvonne Bronner of Morgan State University go as far to say the “culture of breastfeeding has been lost, especially in the low-income African-American community.”
Using data from a 1998 survey, “The Health and Human Services Blueprint for Action on Breastfeeding” report found only 45% of African-American mothers breastfeed their babies even for a brief period. Almost every other racial group surveyed reported higher breastfeeding rates.
The survey found 66% of Latina mothers and 68% of white mothers breastfeed their babies for at least a few weeks. About 54% of low-income Asian and Pacific Islander mothers breastfeed, along with 59% of Native American and Alaska native mothers, for a similar period.
“The time has come for us to work together to promote optimal breastfeeding practices,” says U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher, who oversaw the HHS report. Satcher found breastfeeding rates to be “alarmingly” low for African-American mothers.
While breastfeeding rates have increased over the last decade, the report also found only 29 percent of all mothers, and a mere 19 percent of black mothers, reported breastfeeding their babies six months after their birth.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends their mothers breastfeed their children for at least 12 months, with breastmilk as the only food for the first six months of life. In a policy statement released in 1997, the AAP described breastmilk as “uniquely superior for infant feeding,” and cited its effectiveness in decreasing the incidence and severity of diarrhea, respiratory infections, ear infections, allergies and other illnesses. In addition, the AAP argues that nursing is beneficial to mothers, helping ease postpartum bleeding, delay[s] resumption of ovulation and reduce[s] the risk of ovarian and premenopausal breast cancers. Not only that: the report estimates a savings of at least $400 annually for mothers who choose to nurse rather than formula feed their infants.
But some black mothers say they don’t have the luxury to breastfeed for six months. Marie Charles, a Brooklyn mother of one, said black women who work generally don’t have the time to breastfeed like wealthier white women.
Charles, who is nine months pregnant with her second child, breastfed her son for six weeks and plans to do the same for her second baby. But Charles adds her husband thinks she should go back to work as soon as possible. “It’s just easier for working women to use infant formula,” she says.
The pressure to return to work, especially in jobs that do not offer progressive maternity leave policies, is one reason for low breastfeeding rates. Another is the ubiquitousness of commercial baby formula (which is often given to new mothers when they leave the hospital after giving birth, and is included in the WIC nutrition program.) In addition, women are less likely to breastfeed without support from their partners and other significant people in their lives. Having a mother, grandmother, aunt and close friend who has breastfeed, or who supports breastfeeding, can improve the likelihood that a new mother will choose to nurse her baby.
Dr. Michal Young, M.D., director of the neonatal intensive care unit at D.C. General Hospital, says the rate of black women patients in the District who breastfeed was dismally low when she started her career in 1985. Today, breastfeeding rates there hover around 35%, up 30 percentage points from the 5% breastfeeding rates in the mid-eighties.
Black women who choose to nurse their children report satisfaction, but some frustrations.
“I breastfeed because it’s physically, mentally and emotionally healthier for baby than bottles,” said Martha Ajiwe, a 37-year-old Maryland mother of three who breastfed her first two children till they were nine months, and her third child until she was a year old.
“Physically, breastfed babies get sick less often and breast milk transfers immunity [temporarily] from mom to baby. Mentally, breastfed babies develop better intellectually. Emotionally, babies and moms bond during feeding.”
“Breastfeeding is not sexy,” Ajiwe jokes. I think mothers who are more mature choose to breastfeed because they have developed more understanding of [the] needs of [the] baby and are more willing to do whatever it takes to put [the] baby’s needs first.”
Denise White, a 29-year-old Virginia mother, says she made it a priority to breastfeed her three children even through work, school and other commitments took her time.
“I found it quite difficult to breastfeed and work at the same time,” says White, who works as an office manager for an adolescent substance abuse prevention organization, and is a part-time student.
“Black women, I think, are more afraid of the idea of breastfeeding than white women,” says White. “I think [it’s because of] the idea they would have to be there with the child a large majority of the time, because they are ‘the bottle,’ is what keeps them from doing it.
Nursing mothers who work in an office environment can express breastmilk to be given to their babies in a bottle by other caregivers, but many women work in environments that do not accommodate this.
The breastfeeding advocacy group La Leche’s classic book, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding encourages women not only to nurse their babies, but to draw power and self-respect for being able to sustain their children, something White and others say can be a particularly hard concept for younger African-American mothers to grasp.
“I think younger moms and moms who were not breastfed themselves are less likely to breastfeed because they have difficulty perceiving their bodies as source of sustenance,” Ajiwe says.
Eugenia Hull, a Lanham, Maryland-area natural childbirth instructor, says she appreciates what groups like La Leche League have done. But, recognizing the need to give black mothers a culturally-sensitive space, she founded Adero, a black breastfeeding support group in the early ‘90s.
Other African-American women say La Leche League seems to cater mostly to upper-middle class white women, many of whom do not have to work. But Dr. Michal Young adds that while La Leche League groups in the United States may be homogenous, there is a significant racial shift at international conferences.
It’s ironic so few African-Americans breastfeed today, Young says. Infant formula made its debut in the United States in 1940, but black women largely due to poverty, were the last group to adopt its use in larger numbers.
Breastfeeding rates for African-American women look especially low when compared with patterns among black mothers outside the United States. In Africa, breastfeeding rates are extremely high, ranging from 75% to 100% across the continent. And many of these mothers nurse their children for at least a year, the period recommended by the AAP.
In a tragic paradox, healthy breastfeeding patterns that have persisted in Africa despite inroads by multinational formula manufacturers are now being reassessed in light of the dangers of AIDS. Women who are HIV-positive should not nurse their children, experts now caution, as the disease can be transmitted in breastmilk.
Charles, a Haiti native, says that while more Haitian women breastfeed, women who work in her home country who work outside the home face the same problems as American women: lack of time.
According to Dr. Young, however, low breastfeeding rates in the United States have less to do with the pressure to work than with lack of support of education.
Most mothers who quit nursing stop just seven to ten days after giving birth, Young says, largely due to not knowing how to breastfeed properly. A new mother’s milk does not come in, typically until three days after birth. Young says (before the milk arrives, a fluid called co lustrum is produced, which itself confers powerful benefits and is all the nutrition a newborn needs.) But the typical HMO’s 48-hour discharge policy for childbirth means many women go home without ever receiving adequate breastfeeding education. “We have to educate our providers,” Young says.
“Breastfeeding is not supposed to hurt,” says Melissa Clark Vickers, a lactation consultant and an accredited La Leche League Leader based in Tennessee, writing for the Breastfeed.com informational Website. “Pain is a red flag that something is not right—most often due to improper positioning,” she says. On the other hand, many experts point out that initial soreness and discomfort is normal and can be easily corrected by advice from a lactation consultant—or in communities in which breastfeeding is still common, from an experienced mother.
In our culture, Young says doctors and hospitals have to do their part in getting the word out. She admits that some negative attitudes women have towards breastfeeding can be traced towards to lack of encouragement and support among medical practitioners. “We have to take our licks too,” Young says. But Young believes insurance companies have a share in not giving women health insurance coverage at a critical point after birth.
There are other ways the larger society can help promote breastfeeding. Young points to legislation sponsored by Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) that supports the “civil rights” of women who want to breastfeed or express milk in the workplace during lunch breaks.
In a statement made last year at a breastfeeding promotion rally in the District of Columbia, Rep. Maloney described how several women have been kicked out of federal parks, federal museums, federal buildings and even the U.S. Capitol for doing “the most natural thing in the world— breastfeeding a child.” Many women blame the nature of American culture, which equates breasts only with sexuality, not with their nutritional and maternal function, for an attitude that discourages mothers from nursing their children (even discretely) in public places.
Another piece of Maloney-backed legislation, this one successfully enacted, requires states to use more of their WIC dollars on breastfeeding promotion and support, instead of just distributing free infant formula to low-income mothers. Young commends WIC for works to promote breastfeeding among low-income mothers, unlike in past decades.
Experts say public service campaigns educating African-American women and others about the merits of breastfeeding will be key in getting more women to breastfeed. The only way more women will start to breastfeed is if they make a conscious decision to not use infant formula, experts say.
“It’s a struggle,” Young says. “Breastfeeding is just not the norm in America. Before breastfeeding rates increase, cultural and social norms must change. We’ve got some ways to go.”
Originally published January 31, 2001
Wednesday, January 31, 2001
Teach your Children Well: African American Homeschoolers
Teach your Children Well: African American Homeschoolers
Africana.com
By Pamela Appea
When Joyce Wardick’s youngest son was five and ready for kindergarten in 1984, his mother worried about how her child would fare in a big-school environment. Wardick’s son was small for his age and often sick due to a chronic medical condition. “Surely I can do kindergarten,” the Maryland native and single mother thought to herself. So Wardick began investigating a Christian-oriented home-schooling program that provides the curriculum for families.
But when her son had a serious epilepsy-related medical emergency, Wardick accelerated her plans. Sitting in the hospital waiting room, Wardick, who has worked as a nurse and physician’s assistant, promised God that if her son were to recover, she would stay home and home-school him indefinitely. Looking back, Wardick who currently home-schools two of her grandchildren, recalls that her son never seriously got sick again.
Home-schooling has exploded in the past five years, with the National Home Education Research Institute reporting that between 1.3 and 1.7 million American children from kindergarten to twelfth grade are homeschooled. For African-Americans and other minorities, the number of homechooled students has also significantly increased over the last ten years, although homeschooled African-American children are still am minority within a minority.
“Many minority have finally recognized that government-run education, whose officials and teachers have told them for over 50 years that public schools wouldn’t ‘save them’ has not and cannot do so,” said Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute. Ray says that roughly 30,000 to 50,000 African-American children are home-schooled, but cautions that these numbers are estimates, since there are no reliable surveys on minority-homeschooled children. But Ray notes that groups such as the newly-created National Black Home Educators Resource Association, based in Baker, Louisiana, are starting to find a voice.
Most families who homeschool are white, middle-class, two-parent households in which the mother works within the home. But the demographics of homeschooling families are changing, as evidenced by Wardick and others. Homeschooling has definitely become more mainstream, and is no longer associated with fringe or anti-government people, said Margaret Shaw, a long-terim homeschooling parent whose husband founded the Virginia Home Education Association.
Donna Knox, founder and administrator of Day Spring Academy, an Alabama-based church school that acts as an umbrella organization for homeschooling parents across the state and country, has also seen a change in homeschooling families. Knox, who has homeschooled her nine children for 17 years, estimates that around 20-25% of the 600 homeschooled students Day Spring Academy serves are minorities, mostly African-American or of Middle Eastern descent.
Some homeschooling advocates say that the numbers of homeschooled African American children are too low, arguing that public schools are too secular, often violent, and offer inadequate resources for Afrocentric families who want alternatives for their children’s school curriculum.
Joyce Burgess says there are countless reasons why she has chosen to home-school her two sons and three daughters. But one experience stands out in her mind. One day, Burgess was reading one of Laura Ingall Wilder’s Little House books to her daughter, then five, when the girl asked, “Mom are there any books like this for blacks?”
With many public and private schools offering a mostly Eurocentric curriculum, Burgess says, she feared that a teacher wouldn’t be able to answer such a question, if her daughter asked it in school. But as a homeschooling parent, Burgess helped her daughter thoroughly research her question. Among the books they found, Burgess says, her family particularly enjoyed the Addy Book series, which chronicles the life of a former slave girl whose family moves up North after the end of The Civil War.
Creating a national platform for black homeschoolers was something Joyce and Eric Burgess thought about for years. The family traveled across the country attending homeschooling conferences, and Eric Burgess served on the board of the Louisiana State Homeschooling Association. But after Eric Burgess finished his term, the couple decided to help unite African Americans and educate others about African American homeschooling families, in addition to providing people with resources, and the National Black Home Educators Resource Association was born.
Homeschooling parents say the biggest challenge lies in educating the public about their right to homschool. Burges recalls a recent lunch which one woman asked her, in all seriousness, “Is [home-schooling] really legal.”
Starting out, Burgess said, her homeschooling met with a cool reception. “I faced hostility from the white community, the black community, my family,” she recalled. But now, Burgess says, close friends and family members love the idea and are much more supportive. “Black America has always valued education,” Burgess said. “Home-schooling is just another unique way for us to reclaim it for ourselves.”
Lawrence Burges, 17, a Baton Rouge community-college student since he was 16, plans on transferring to Louisiana State University is about two years. He says the best thing about home-schooling was the one-on-one attention. “It’s just like you when you get a [custom-made] suit; it’s tailored especially for you,” he said. “I could work on what aspects of mine needed to be worked on and which aspects of mine—music—was a strength.”
The downside to home-schooling, Lawrence says, was the absence of athletic teams in his elementary-age years, since public schools in many states routinely bar homeschooled students from participating. It’s not just sports; critics worry that homeschooled children will miss the social interaction their peers get in and out of the classroom. But homeschooling families say it’s just a matter of creating opportunities for socialization. Lawrence says he got involved with a state homeschooling league where he played basketball, football and soccer during his teen years.
Another challenge for black parents is making the financial aspect work. In particular, many interested single parents think homescholing wouldn’t be an option for them. “I know a lot of African American families … don’t have the luxury.” Said Wardick, who homeschooled her son as a single parent. While personal finances were definitely an issue for her, Wardick says she found ways and resources for homeschooling to work.
One of the first hings for single parents to make homeschooling fit into their schedules, Wardick says, is to let go of the notion that school hours can only fall between 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. “You could work during the day and home school during the night,” or vice versa, Wardick counseled. Wardicks adds that families have to work out the best schedule for themselves, depending on the age of the child and the family’s childcare resources.
With the rise of the technology and the Internet, schools like the Internet Home School (www.homeschool.com) are popping up, providing phone tutorial help and detailed curricula, and for some subjects, like Spanish or French, audiotaped lesson plans. Many African American families use correspondence-type programs that issue diplomas, but other feel free to loosely adhere to a proposed curriculum, adding, or in some cases, leaving out, what they choose. The Burgess family, a self-described singing family, emphasizes music and voice lessons. They also heavily emphasize reading, something most homeschooling mothers of all races, who are often the primary teachers, are drawn to.
When Wardick homeschooled her son, she found it a challenge getting her son to like reading. He absolutely hated reading, Wardick recalls, and was a slow reader. To encourage her son to read for fun, she gave him comic books upon comic books—something most school teachers wouldn’t even consider.
But studies show the majority of homeschoolig kids are not academically lacking and do not, in fact, have trouble getting into college. In fact, some homeschooling parents say, in recent years colleges have been actively recruiting homeschooled children, who routinely out-perform their peers on standardized tests and often enroll in local community colleges to take classes beginning at 15 or 16. According to the Home School Legal Defense Association, nearly 25% of homeschooled students are enrolled one or more grades above their age-level peers in public and private schools. The National Home Education Research Institute’s 1997 study showed that homeschoolers outperform their K-12 public school peers by as much as 30 to 37 percent across all subjects, including social studies, reading and math.
The biggest reward of all, Wardick says, lies in the fact that her youngest son is now a 21-year-old honor student at a Bible college in upstate New York. “If you know anything about bible school,” Wardick added, “there’s a lot of reading.”
Originally published January 31, 2001
Africana.com
By Pamela Appea
When Joyce Wardick’s youngest son was five and ready for kindergarten in 1984, his mother worried about how her child would fare in a big-school environment. Wardick’s son was small for his age and often sick due to a chronic medical condition. “Surely I can do kindergarten,” the Maryland native and single mother thought to herself. So Wardick began investigating a Christian-oriented home-schooling program that provides the curriculum for families.
But when her son had a serious epilepsy-related medical emergency, Wardick accelerated her plans. Sitting in the hospital waiting room, Wardick, who has worked as a nurse and physician’s assistant, promised God that if her son were to recover, she would stay home and home-school him indefinitely. Looking back, Wardick who currently home-schools two of her grandchildren, recalls that her son never seriously got sick again.
Home-schooling has exploded in the past five years, with the National Home Education Research Institute reporting that between 1.3 and 1.7 million American children from kindergarten to twelfth grade are homeschooled. For African-Americans and other minorities, the number of homechooled students has also significantly increased over the last ten years, although homeschooled African-American children are still am minority within a minority.
“Many minority have finally recognized that government-run education, whose officials and teachers have told them for over 50 years that public schools wouldn’t ‘save them’ has not and cannot do so,” said Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute. Ray says that roughly 30,000 to 50,000 African-American children are home-schooled, but cautions that these numbers are estimates, since there are no reliable surveys on minority-homeschooled children. But Ray notes that groups such as the newly-created National Black Home Educators Resource Association, based in Baker, Louisiana, are starting to find a voice.
Most families who homeschool are white, middle-class, two-parent households in which the mother works within the home. But the demographics of homeschooling families are changing, as evidenced by Wardick and others. Homeschooling has definitely become more mainstream, and is no longer associated with fringe or anti-government people, said Margaret Shaw, a long-terim homeschooling parent whose husband founded the Virginia Home Education Association.
Donna Knox, founder and administrator of Day Spring Academy, an Alabama-based church school that acts as an umbrella organization for homeschooling parents across the state and country, has also seen a change in homeschooling families. Knox, who has homeschooled her nine children for 17 years, estimates that around 20-25% of the 600 homeschooled students Day Spring Academy serves are minorities, mostly African-American or of Middle Eastern descent.
Some homeschooling advocates say that the numbers of homeschooled African American children are too low, arguing that public schools are too secular, often violent, and offer inadequate resources for Afrocentric families who want alternatives for their children’s school curriculum.
Joyce Burgess says there are countless reasons why she has chosen to home-school her two sons and three daughters. But one experience stands out in her mind. One day, Burgess was reading one of Laura Ingall Wilder’s Little House books to her daughter, then five, when the girl asked, “Mom are there any books like this for blacks?”
With many public and private schools offering a mostly Eurocentric curriculum, Burgess says, she feared that a teacher wouldn’t be able to answer such a question, if her daughter asked it in school. But as a homeschooling parent, Burgess helped her daughter thoroughly research her question. Among the books they found, Burgess says, her family particularly enjoyed the Addy Book series, which chronicles the life of a former slave girl whose family moves up North after the end of The Civil War.
Creating a national platform for black homeschoolers was something Joyce and Eric Burgess thought about for years. The family traveled across the country attending homeschooling conferences, and Eric Burgess served on the board of the Louisiana State Homeschooling Association. But after Eric Burgess finished his term, the couple decided to help unite African Americans and educate others about African American homeschooling families, in addition to providing people with resources, and the National Black Home Educators Resource Association was born.
Homeschooling parents say the biggest challenge lies in educating the public about their right to homschool. Burges recalls a recent lunch which one woman asked her, in all seriousness, “Is [home-schooling] really legal.”
Starting out, Burgess said, her homeschooling met with a cool reception. “I faced hostility from the white community, the black community, my family,” she recalled. But now, Burgess says, close friends and family members love the idea and are much more supportive. “Black America has always valued education,” Burgess said. “Home-schooling is just another unique way for us to reclaim it for ourselves.”
Lawrence Burges, 17, a Baton Rouge community-college student since he was 16, plans on transferring to Louisiana State University is about two years. He says the best thing about home-schooling was the one-on-one attention. “It’s just like you when you get a [custom-made] suit; it’s tailored especially for you,” he said. “I could work on what aspects of mine needed to be worked on and which aspects of mine—music—was a strength.”
The downside to home-schooling, Lawrence says, was the absence of athletic teams in his elementary-age years, since public schools in many states routinely bar homeschooled students from participating. It’s not just sports; critics worry that homeschooled children will miss the social interaction their peers get in and out of the classroom. But homeschooling families say it’s just a matter of creating opportunities for socialization. Lawrence says he got involved with a state homeschooling league where he played basketball, football and soccer during his teen years.
Another challenge for black parents is making the financial aspect work. In particular, many interested single parents think homescholing wouldn’t be an option for them. “I know a lot of African American families … don’t have the luxury.” Said Wardick, who homeschooled her son as a single parent. While personal finances were definitely an issue for her, Wardick says she found ways and resources for homeschooling to work.
One of the first hings for single parents to make homeschooling fit into their schedules, Wardick says, is to let go of the notion that school hours can only fall between 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. “You could work during the day and home school during the night,” or vice versa, Wardick counseled. Wardicks adds that families have to work out the best schedule for themselves, depending on the age of the child and the family’s childcare resources.
With the rise of the technology and the Internet, schools like the Internet Home School (www.homeschool.com) are popping up, providing phone tutorial help and detailed curricula, and for some subjects, like Spanish or French, audiotaped lesson plans. Many African American families use correspondence-type programs that issue diplomas, but other feel free to loosely adhere to a proposed curriculum, adding, or in some cases, leaving out, what they choose. The Burgess family, a self-described singing family, emphasizes music and voice lessons. They also heavily emphasize reading, something most homeschooling mothers of all races, who are often the primary teachers, are drawn to.
When Wardick homeschooled her son, she found it a challenge getting her son to like reading. He absolutely hated reading, Wardick recalls, and was a slow reader. To encourage her son to read for fun, she gave him comic books upon comic books—something most school teachers wouldn’t even consider.
But studies show the majority of homeschoolig kids are not academically lacking and do not, in fact, have trouble getting into college. In fact, some homeschooling parents say, in recent years colleges have been actively recruiting homeschooled children, who routinely out-perform their peers on standardized tests and often enroll in local community colleges to take classes beginning at 15 or 16. According to the Home School Legal Defense Association, nearly 25% of homeschooled students are enrolled one or more grades above their age-level peers in public and private schools. The National Home Education Research Institute’s 1997 study showed that homeschoolers outperform their K-12 public school peers by as much as 30 to 37 percent across all subjects, including social studies, reading and math.
The biggest reward of all, Wardick says, lies in the fact that her youngest son is now a 21-year-old honor student at a Bible college in upstate New York. “If you know anything about bible school,” Wardick added, “there’s a lot of reading.”
Originally published January 31, 2001
Monday, January 15, 2001
Hirst Launches Hedge Fund
Hirst Launches Hedge Fund
Alternative Investment News
By Pamela Appea
Hirst Investment Management, an Orlando-Fla. Based alternative investment firm is launching the Hirst MetaStategy Ltd. Fund, targeting investors with a minimum investment of $100,000.
The hedge fund uses what Gary Hirst, founder and chairman of Hirst Investment Management, calls a computational intelligence model that puts about 20 major hedge fund strategies to use, including long/short, emerging markets, market neutral and merger arbitrage.
This system, Hirst said, will create allocations for different investment styles and targets steady annualized returns of 18-20% a year.
“I’ve been in alternative investments for 27 years,” Hirst said. “And the most important factor in determining your investment return and risk is your choice of styles.” The fund carries a 2% management fee and a 20% performance fee, he added.
“We’re not going to make 50% any year,” Hirst said, noting his main goal for the fund is preserving capital, not trying to achieve wildly above-average returns. “If you can make 20% a year, every year, that’s a good return,” Hirst said.
Originally published January 15, 2001
Alternative Investment News
By Pamela Appea
Hirst Investment Management, an Orlando-Fla. Based alternative investment firm is launching the Hirst MetaStategy Ltd. Fund, targeting investors with a minimum investment of $100,000.
The hedge fund uses what Gary Hirst, founder and chairman of Hirst Investment Management, calls a computational intelligence model that puts about 20 major hedge fund strategies to use, including long/short, emerging markets, market neutral and merger arbitrage.
This system, Hirst said, will create allocations for different investment styles and targets steady annualized returns of 18-20% a year.
“I’ve been in alternative investments for 27 years,” Hirst said. “And the most important factor in determining your investment return and risk is your choice of styles.” The fund carries a 2% management fee and a 20% performance fee, he added.
“We’re not going to make 50% any year,” Hirst said, noting his main goal for the fund is preserving capital, not trying to achieve wildly above-average returns. “If you can make 20% a year, every year, that’s a good return,” Hirst said.
Originally published January 15, 2001
Hirst Launches Hedge Fund
Hirst Launches Hedge Fund
Alternative Investment News
By Pamela Appea
Hirst Investment Management, an Orlando-Fla. Based alternative investment firm is launching the Hirst MetaStategy Ltd. Fund, targeting investors with a minimum investment of $100,000.
The hedge fund uses what Gary Hirst, founder and chairman of Hirst Investment Management, calls a computational intelligence model that puts about 20 major hedge fund strategies to use, including long/short, emerging markets, market neutral and merger arbitrage.
This system, Hirst said, will create allocations for different investment styles and targets steady annualized returns of 18-20% a year.
“I’ve been in alternative investments for 27 years,” Hirst said. “And the most important factor in determining your investment return and risk is your choice of styles.” The fund carries a 2% management fee and a 20% performance fee, he added.
“We’re not going to make 50% any year,” Hirst said, noting his main goal for the fund is preserving capital, not trying to achieve wildly above-average returns. “If you can make 20% a year, every year, that’s a good return,” Hirst said.
Originally published January 15, 2001
Alternative Investment News
By Pamela Appea
Hirst Investment Management, an Orlando-Fla. Based alternative investment firm is launching the Hirst MetaStategy Ltd. Fund, targeting investors with a minimum investment of $100,000.
The hedge fund uses what Gary Hirst, founder and chairman of Hirst Investment Management, calls a computational intelligence model that puts about 20 major hedge fund strategies to use, including long/short, emerging markets, market neutral and merger arbitrage.
This system, Hirst said, will create allocations for different investment styles and targets steady annualized returns of 18-20% a year.
“I’ve been in alternative investments for 27 years,” Hirst said. “And the most important factor in determining your investment return and risk is your choice of styles.” The fund carries a 2% management fee and a 20% performance fee, he added.
“We’re not going to make 50% any year,” Hirst said, noting his main goal for the fund is preserving capital, not trying to achieve wildly above-average returns. “If you can make 20% a year, every year, that’s a good return,” Hirst said.
Originally published January 15, 2001
Monday, January 01, 2001
Mutual Fund Guru Eyes Europe, Institutional Market for Hedge Fund
Mutual Fund Guru Eyes Europe, Institutional Market for Hedge Fund
Alternative Investment News
January 2001
By Pamela Appea
Mutual fund pioneer Michael Lipper is looking to possibly expand L & S Partners I, LLC, the hedge fund he co-founded a year-and-a-half ago, to the European market in about a year’s time.
With a current focus on high-net-worth individuals in the domestic sector, the fund is also looking to increase the number of endowments, foundations and other institutional clients looking to invest in alternatives, Lipper said.
“We’re going to have to wait before we do an institutional push,” Lipper said. “Part of that will depend on how the gods of performance treat us,” he joked.
The Milwaukee-based fund, which opened its doors in June 1999, invests in financial service groups, and had a 36% performance rate in 2000. Along with Lipper, managing member Zuheir Sofia, former ceo and president of the Columbus, Ohio-based Huntington Bank, are working with the firms’ two other principal members to develop their $17 million dollar long/short hedge fund.
The fund’s minimum for investment is $500,000, although the minimum amount is not cast in stone, Lipper added. L & S Partners I will employ the standard fee, with a 1% management fee and a 20% performance fee over a 6% hurdle.
Lipper, who is based in Summit, New Jersey, recently left his position as non-executive chairman for Lipper Inc., a mutual funds data and research group.
Now he plans on spending more time on L & S Partners I, which is a stand-alone hedge fund. Lipper who is the president of Lipper Advisory Services, a group that manages or advises about $750 million in investments for institutional clients and wealthy families.
Alternative Investment News
January 2001
By Pamela Appea
Mutual fund pioneer Michael Lipper is looking to possibly expand L & S Partners I, LLC, the hedge fund he co-founded a year-and-a-half ago, to the European market in about a year’s time.
With a current focus on high-net-worth individuals in the domestic sector, the fund is also looking to increase the number of endowments, foundations and other institutional clients looking to invest in alternatives, Lipper said.
“We’re going to have to wait before we do an institutional push,” Lipper said. “Part of that will depend on how the gods of performance treat us,” he joked.
The Milwaukee-based fund, which opened its doors in June 1999, invests in financial service groups, and had a 36% performance rate in 2000. Along with Lipper, managing member Zuheir Sofia, former ceo and president of the Columbus, Ohio-based Huntington Bank, are working with the firms’ two other principal members to develop their $17 million dollar long/short hedge fund.
The fund’s minimum for investment is $500,000, although the minimum amount is not cast in stone, Lipper added. L & S Partners I will employ the standard fee, with a 1% management fee and a 20% performance fee over a 6% hurdle.
Lipper, who is based in Summit, New Jersey, recently left his position as non-executive chairman for Lipper Inc., a mutual funds data and research group.
Now he plans on spending more time on L & S Partners I, which is a stand-alone hedge fund. Lipper who is the president of Lipper Advisory Services, a group that manages or advises about $750 million in investments for institutional clients and wealthy families.
Altgate to launch five funds
Altgate to launch five funds
Alternative Investment News
January 2001
By Pamela Appea
Altgate Capital, which opened its doors last year, is launching its first five hedge funds and plans to have another five out by the end of the first quarter.
The funds will employ strategies including long/short, merger arbitrage, event-driven, distressed debt and emerging market styles, said James Baker, chairman and a former 25-year Goldman Sachs veteran.
The funds, will be offered through third-party distribution channels including private banks and financial advisors and will carry standard fees of 1% management/20% performance.
Total costs after factoring in hose of the distributor will be about 2% management and 25% incentive, Baker said. Private client minimums will be $1 million for investment.
The funds will be targeted toward small and medium-sized institutions and high-net-worth individuals. Altgate is presently looking for distribution channels.
“We already have five hedge funds lined up for clients … Five will probably not be enough. By the end of the first quarter we will be offering at least 10,” Baker said.
Baker, who is housed in Altgate’s London office, said the company is weighing the option of opening an Altgate office in Switzerland to court private banks, but he noted no decisions will be made until the second half of 2001.
New York-based Altgate Capital is also looking to hire people in both its London and New York offices, in research and sales, respectively.
Alternative Investment News
January 2001
By Pamela Appea
Altgate Capital, which opened its doors last year, is launching its first five hedge funds and plans to have another five out by the end of the first quarter.
The funds will employ strategies including long/short, merger arbitrage, event-driven, distressed debt and emerging market styles, said James Baker, chairman and a former 25-year Goldman Sachs veteran.
The funds, will be offered through third-party distribution channels including private banks and financial advisors and will carry standard fees of 1% management/20% performance.
Total costs after factoring in hose of the distributor will be about 2% management and 25% incentive, Baker said. Private client minimums will be $1 million for investment.
The funds will be targeted toward small and medium-sized institutions and high-net-worth individuals. Altgate is presently looking for distribution channels.
“We already have five hedge funds lined up for clients … Five will probably not be enough. By the end of the first quarter we will be offering at least 10,” Baker said.
Baker, who is housed in Altgate’s London office, said the company is weighing the option of opening an Altgate office in Switzerland to court private banks, but he noted no decisions will be made until the second half of 2001.
New York-based Altgate Capital is also looking to hire people in both its London and New York offices, in research and sales, respectively.
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