Wow, we could all be so lucky. Bloomberg reports on one of the sweetest employee perks in the hedge-fund world: a chance to invest in Medallion, the wildly profitable fund created by market legend James Simons.
“Now, with deft legal maneuvers and a blessing from Washington, the firm Simons started is giving its employees an even richer opportunity—a tax-advantaged, fee-free ticket to one of the world’s top-performing hedge funds,” according to the news service.
In a series of unusual moves, Renaissance Technologies abolished its 401(k) plan and won the government’s permission to put pieces of Medallion inside Roth IRAs. That means no taxes—ever—on the future earnings of a fund that averaged a 71.8 percent annual return, before fees, from 1994 through mid-2014.
“The switch—the result of four years of legal work and two waivers from the U.S. Labor Department—could yield an extraordinary payoff for workers at Renaissance, a pioneer in quantitative trading. The loser will be the U.S. Treasury, which stands to miss out on many millions of tax dollars.”
How this turns out depends on Medallion, Bloomberg concludes. From 2001 through 2013, the fund’s worst year was a 21 percent gain, after subtracting fees. Medallion reaped a 98.2 percent gain in 2008, the year the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 38.5 percent.
“If Medallion repeats that 13-year performance, a $300,000 taxable investment would turn into $4.7 million. A Roth IRA funded with $300,000 would be worth $26.3 million — and a no-fee version would be even bigger.”
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
