General Description of Advisory Firm
A. Describe your advisory firm, including how long you have been in business. Identify your
principal owners.
Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisers LLC (the “Adviser”) is an affiliate of George Weiss Associates,
Inc. (together, with their affiliates and predecessors, the “Firm”). George A. Weiss, the
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Firm, founded George Weiss Associates, Inc.,
formerly an SEC and NASD registered broker/dealer, in 1978. The original business was built
around brokerage and trading, especially in domestic utility company names on behalf of
institutional investors. In 1986, the Firm entered the hedge fund business.
In the mid-1990s, the Firm initiated a proprietary investment operation. For the better part of
a decade, the Firm focused increasingly on managing the capital of its principals and it wound
down the hedge fund business. This proprietary endeavor proved successful and facilitated a
substantial expansion of the enterprise. The Firm was reorganized in 2005 and the Adviser was
created as the investment advisory entity which would manage the Firm’s private investment
funds, registered investment companies, managed accounts, and proprietary capital. The
Adviser became registered as an investment adviser with the SEC in March 2010 and registered
as a commodity pool operator with the CFTC and NFA in January 2013.
The Adviser is majority-owned by GWA, LLC, a Connecticut limited liability company. GWA,
LLC, in turn, is majority-owned by Weiss Family Interests LLC, which is majority- owned by
various Weiss family trusts. A substantial number of the Adviser’s employees also own
minority interests in GWA, LLC.
Description of Advisory Services (including any specializations)
B. Describe the types of advisory services you offer. If you hold yourself out as specializing in a
particular type of advisory service, such as financial planning, quantitative analysis, or market
timing, explain the nature of that service in greater detail. If you provide investment advice
only with respect to limited types of investments, explain the type of investment advice you
offer, and disclose that your advice is limited to those types of investments.
The Adviser acts as a discretionary investment adviser to a number of private investment funds
organized by the Adviser, a mutual fund and a UCITS fund. The Advisers also advises
managed accounts owned by institutional investors over which it exercises sole investment
discretion.
On behalf of its clients, the Adviser invests and trades in a wide range of U.S. and non-U.S.
equities, fixed income securities, convertibles, options, other derivatives such as swaps, credit
default protection and contracts for differences, futures, forward contracts, debt instruments
and other types of financial instruments. In connection with client trading, the Adviser employs
short-selling techniques and may utilize leverage and/or make margin purchases. There are
generally no restrictions on the Adviser’s use of leverage or borrowing, other than those which
may be imposed by applicable statutes and regulations or by the owner of a separately managed
account.
Availability of Tailored Services for Individual Clients
C. Explain whether (and if so how) you tailor your advisory services to the individual needs of
clients. Explain whether clients may impose restrictions on investing in certain securities or types
of securities.
The Adviser does not tailor its advisory services to the individual needs of clients. Its accounts,
however, may have specific investment objectives or use varying investment strategies. By way
of background, the Adviser’s clients fall into the following categories:
1. Traditional private investment funds:
Weiss Multi-Strategy Partners LLC; Weiss Multi-Strategy Partners (Cayman) Ltd.; Weiss
Insurance Partners (Cayman) Ltd.
2. separately managed accounts for institutional investors
3. proprietary capital
4. a charitable account
5. alternative multi-strategy products, including separately managed accounts, an open-end
mutual fund, a multi-strategy portfolio available through a collaboration with a third party
and a Luxembourg domiciled UCITS fund.
6.
Stand-alone, single strategy private investment fund, Weiss Enhanced Global Macro Fund
LLC
Client types 1, 2, 3:
The Adviser generally conducts the investment trading program for these clients in a similar
manner albeit at different allocation weightings in certain strategies. Investors in the separately
managed accounts have also placed certain restrictions on the strategies, securities and types of
securities in which they invest. In addition, the Firm’s proprietary capital also may be invested in
unseasoned “incubator strategies” or sub- strategies that may or may not mature into strategies
suitable for the other client types. It may also invest in certain ancillary strategies that the Adviser
does not believe appropriate for trading for its other clients due to their risk profile. The inflows
and outflows of capital will also differ for each client, which may result in different investment
activity among the private investment funds, the separately managed accounts and the proprietary
capital account. The performance of the traditional private investment funds, the separately
managed accounts and the proprietary capital account may not be similar due to the above factors
and due to the fact that the respective clients may use different leverage. Please note that certain
separately managed accounts for institutional investors use the strategies described under Client
type 5 rather than the foregoing strategies.
Client type 4:
The Adviser also manages an account for a charitable organization founded by George Weiss that
has a different investment strategy and portfolio manager from other clients.
Client type 5:
The alternative multi-strategy products utilize actively managed strategies that seek to provide
exposure to equity and debt portfolios, and a multi-strategy long/short portfolio (the “Core
Market Neutral alpha portfolio”) using a risk allocation methodology. The Adviser aims to
structure the portfolios on a risk-weighted basis, an allocation model that stresses each asset
portfolio’s contribution to risk rather than specific dollar amounts or expected returns. The
approach will seek to balance risk across asset classes through exposures primarily to equities
and debt. Subject to a maximum allocation constraint on the alpha portfolio, it also uses the
Adviser’s Core Market Neutral alpha portfolio, which consists of a top-down risk-weighted
allocation to a long/short hedge fund and combines sector-specific equity long/short, credit and
cross asset strategies. The inflows and outflows of capital will also differ for each of these
clients, which may result in different investment activity among the product offerings. The
performance of these clients may not be similar due to the above factors and due to the fact that
different risk balance thresholds may be used for each product and the strategies invested in by
each product may be different. Different leverage factors may also be used among products
which will also cause returns to differ.
Client type 6: The Adviser manages a single strategy, stand-alone private investment fund,
Weiss Enhanced Global Macro Fund LLC (“Weiss Enhanced Global Macro Fund”). Weiss
Enhanced Global Macro Fund uses a long/short global macro strategy to seek to provide
investors attractive returns with low correlation to bond and equity markets and non-traditional
asset classes.
Wrap Fee Programs
D. If you participate in wrap fee programs by providing portfolio management services, (1)
described the differences, if any, between how you manage wrap fee accounts and how you
manage other accounts, and (2) explain that you receive a portion of the wrap fee for your
services.
The Adviser does not participate in wrap fee programs.
Client Assets Under Management
E. If you manage client assets, disclose the amount of client assets you manage on a discretionary
basis and the amount of client assets you manage on a non-discretionary basis. Disclose the
date “as of” which you calculated the amounts.
As of December 31, 2023, the Adviser managed approximately $ 2,352,670,021 billion dollars
in net assets on a discretionary basis. This amount may include notionally funded assets. The
Adviser does not manage non-discretionary assets.