Cowen Investment Advisors, LLC (New York)

Name: Cowen Investment Advisors, LLC
Address: 599 Lexington Ave., New York, NY, 10022
Telephone: 646-562-1010

Cowen Investment Advisors, LLC is a large advisory firm based in New York. It manages $849.5 million of regulatory assets for 18 client accounts. It has been registered with the SEC as an adviser since 2018.

Cowen Investment Advisors provides portfolio management for investment companies, portfolio management for pooled investment vehicles, and advise proprietary securities portfolios. It doesn't provide financial planning services to its clients. On top of advisory services, the firm doesn't engage in other business activities.

Cowen Investment Advisors: assets under management

The assets under management (AUM) of Cowen Investment Advisors, LLC is $849.5 million, all of which is managed in discretionary accounts. The firm's AUM has gone down by -34% since the beginning of its operation, and $471.57 million of the total AUM is attributable to clients outside of the United States.

The firm manages $849.5 million in discretionary accounts. On average, the discretionary accounts where all decisions are made on behalf of the client hold $47.19 million each.

Cowen Investment Advisors has custody of $614.85 million in cash and securities for 15 clients in total but doesn’t act as a qualified custodian.

Investments

The firm invests in exchange traded securities the most. They account for 78% of the total AUM. The second-largest asset type is other assets, which make up 20% of the firm’s portfolio. Investments in derivatives form 2% of the total invested assets.

Fees & Commissions

The advisory firm has several streams of revenue. Clients pay Cowen Investment Advisors, LLC for their services and products based on a percentage of assets under management and performance-based fees. The adviser charges an additional fee when a set benchmark is outperformed. These fees don’t include brokerage commissions, interest, taxes, and other account expenses.

What kind of clients Cowen Investment Advisors serves?

The firm provides services to investment companies and pooled investment vehicles. The largest group of clients of Cowen Investment Advisors is pooled investment vehicles with 15 clients and $614.85 million of assets under management. Among the 5 most similar advisory firms, Cowen Investment Advisors has the lowest percentage of pooled investment vehicles out of all clients.

The amount of regulatory assets under management is $811.73 million for 17 clients. 60% of the firm’s clients are foreign persons or businesses.

Cowen Investment Advisors also advises several private funds. Namely, nine hedge funds and one private equity fund. The minimum investment commitment required of non-related persons ranges from $10,000 to $1,000,000.

Careers at Cowen Investment Advisors, LLC

The company employs 49 people that are either part- or full-time employees. 10 percent of the employees work as investment advisers or researchers. No employees are registered as investment adviser representatives with the state securities authorities.

There’s a single person with the role of looking for and bringing in new clients on behalf of the firm. The firm doesn’t compensate employees in addition to the salary for bringing in new clients. Employees don’t receive compensation from other entities for client referrals.

Direct owners and executive officers

Name	Entity	Date acquired	Ownership	Employer ID
Cowen Investment Management Llc	Managing and sole member	1 Nov 2009	75% - 100%	151953
Andrea J.S. Sayago	Chief compliance officer, cowen investment management llc	1 Sep 2011	Other	6042456
Michael G Benwitt	Chief operating officer and general counsel, cowen investment management llc	1 Jan 2012	Other	6046442
Thomas Wolff Strauss	Chairman, cowen investment management llc	1 Dec 2012	Other	438203
James David Ryan	Chief financial officer, cowen investment management llc	1 Aug 2015	Other	4269228
Fred Steven Fraenkel	Interim head of investment management, cowen investment management llc	1 Jan 2017	Other	1367622

Indirect Owners

The SEC currently registers 1 indirect owner.

Name	Entity	Date acquired	Ownership	Employer ID
Cowen Inc.	Parent	1 Nov 2009	75% - 100%	27-0423711

Based in New York

The principal office where Cowen Investment Advisors, LLC performs its advisory services is located at 599 Lexington Ave., New York, NY 10022, which is also the mailing address of the firm. It doesn’t run an office outside of the United States.

You can reach the main office by calling the phone number 646-562-1010. The normal business hours are 9:00 am - 5:00 pm on Monday - Friday. You can find more information about the New York firm at cowen.com.