What Is a Master-Feeder Structure?

A master-feeder structure is a common way to run a private fund. One or more “feeder” funds collect capital from investors and then invest substantially all of it into a single “master” fund, where the actual trading happens.

The appeal is efficiency: a manager can run one portfolio in the master while offering different feeders tailored to different investors — for example, a U.S. onshore feeder and an offshore feeder for non-U.S. or tax-exempt investors.

On Form ADV, managers flag whether each fund is a master fund, a feeder fund, and which master a feeder invests into. Where the master is also in our database, we link the two so you can see the whole structure.

You can look up any of these facts for a specific firm using the search.