How to work with us · family offices and institutions

Long-only for tax-exempt money, and uncorrelated market neutrals with differing risk budgets

A boutique built around a limited number of proprietary strategies, each with a live record, a monitor and a stated set of limits, and a CIO who answers the questions himself.

Mandates

What each kind of capital tends to use

Family offices

Alternative, uncorrelated first; Alpha Convergence beside it.

Family offices generally look for uncorrelated strategies, which is what market neutrals are, and ours carry differing risk budgets. AC Market Neutral is an equity alternative with a low risk budget: selection without market direction. Independent Return is a fixed-income alternative with a very low risk budget: a stand-in for part of a bond allocation. Both need a margin-eligible account at Schwab. Alpha Convergence for growth in the tax-exempt entities of the family.

Non-tax-paying institutions

Foundations, endowments, defined-benefit plans.

Alpha Convergence is the natural fit: short-term gains carry no tax cost, the book is liquid and long only, and the benchmark, the equal-weight S&P 500, was fixed before trading began. The market-neutral strategies add diversification where margin is permitted.

How much each market-neutral strategy moves with stocks and bonds, since inception
Diversification, since inceptionAgainstCorrelationBeta
AC Market NeutralRSP, equal-weight stocks0.050.02
Independent ReturnLQD, corporate bonds−0.04−0.01
Independent ReturnGOVT, Treasuries0.070.03

AC Market Neutral is an equity alternative; Independent Return is a fixed-income alternative, shown against bonds. AC Market Neutral’s comparison with market-neutral funds, including MKTN, the closest peer on FlightDeck’s monitor, is on its strategy page. Leyland Cypress record.

Direct access

You talk to the person who built the process

Mark Tennenbaum, CIO, designed the models, built FlightDeck and gives the backstage tours himself. Questions from a committee go straight to him, and he invests alongside clients, in the same positions at the same prices.

About the teamBook a backstage tour

What a diligence committee asks first

The answers, including what has not been verified

Capacity
At least $300MM per strategy for Alpha Convergence and AC Market Neutral, on a deliberately conservative estimate; modeled capacity runs to roughly $1B. Independent Return capacity is limited and allocated by inquiry.
Verification
The composite is self-prepared from Black Diamond data, with the methodology defined, and a self-prepared, GIPS-consistent composite is available on request. There is no external auditor and no GIPS verifier, so no third party has examined the composite or the firm-wide record. We would rather say so than leave the question open.
Custody
Charles Schwab. Client assets are held at Schwab, not by us. We have trading authority and no custody of client funds or securities.
Reporting
Live figures each trading day at 1:30 PM PT on FlightDeck; account values, returns and billed fees in SS&C Black Diamond, reconciled to custodial records; the weekly Statistical Validation Report.
Alignment
Every member of the team is substantially invested alongside clients.
Access
Direct to the CIO, who designed the models, built FlightDeck and gives the backstage tours himself.
Ownership
AC Market Neutral and Independent Return are managed by Leyland Cypress. Life UnLocked Partners holds a 50% interest in Leyland Cypress and receives a share of its fees; the two firms share senior management and compliance oversight. See Form ADV for this conflict of interest.
The due-diligence kit Who we are Known limits

Backstage tour

See it running live

A live screen-share of FlightDeck with Mark Tennenbaum, CIO: the command center driven in real time, how today’s market is classified and what the book does about it, and the record with the tests behind it.

Book a backstage tour Or email us