Methodology

Unless otherwise noted, all hedge fund investment data is sourced and licensed from Preqin’s alternative asset database as of February 2024 or publicly available, federal datasets. Sources for additional information included on this website are noted where the data appears.

Hedge fund investors are grouped into three categories: Pension & Retirement Funds; Colleges & Universities; and Foundations & Non-Profits. The Pension & Retirement Funds category comprises both private and public sector funds. Where noted, multiple endowments for a single institution are consolidated.

The aggregate amount of hedge fund investment in each state includes investments in pensions, non-profits, colleges and universities, and private debt. Total investment in pensions, non-profits, and private debt in each state is calculated from the sum of investor-level Preqin data and an imputation of hedge fund investment not represented in Preqin’s data set.

For Pension & Retirement Funds, average supplemental hedge fund investment by state was imputed using Preqin’s Q2 2023 estimate for aggregate hedge fund investment, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Q2 2023 estimate for total hedge fund investment by private pensions, and each state’s share of national pension beneficiaries. In the Pension & Retirement Funds category, private sector funds are allocated to the state in which the plan sponsor is headquartered.

For Foundations, Endowments, and Non-Profits, average supplemental hedge fund investment by state was imputed using Preqin’s Q2 2023 estimate for aggregate hedge fund investment, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Q2 2023 estimate for total hedge fund investment by non-profits, and the state’s share of all national nonprofit investment assets.

Private debt investment is incorporated in the total investment figures for each state as well as the nationwide total. The national private debt totals for years 2020-2022 were sourced from Preqin as of December for each respective year. The national private debt total for 2023 was sourced from Preqin as of June 2023. Average private debt investment by state was imputed using Preqin data on private debt assets under management, each state’s share of national private debt investment assets, and each state’s share of non-private debt investment assets.

For these purposes, non-profit higher education institutions were classified as Colleges & Universities and excluded from the imputation process. Student enrollment information, which is derived from the U.S. News and World Report or individual institutions, is aggregated for university systems.