50-year-old NY hedge fund managers: "When my kids grow up, I'm moving to Miami"

If New York hedge fund managers don't suddenly disperse to jobs in Miami this year, or even next, that doesn't mean they won't leave at all. One veteran hedge fund headhunter says they're simply biding their time.

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"A lot of people I speak to in New York are saying that ‘As soon as my kids go to college, we’re moving to Miami’," says Claude Schwab, a former talent strategist for Bridgewater and founder of hedge fund search firm The Kronor Group. 

There are ample numbers of senior portfolio managers at New York hedge funds who might want to migrate. Recently filed regulatory data suggests Citadel alone has over 500 people working in investment roles at its Park Avenue offices in New York. Balyasny Asset Management (BAM) revealed recently that it has 57 portfolio managers (PMs) in New York. BAM's next biggest office globally is in London, with only 30 PMs.

Many of the New York portfolio managers are of a certain age, says Schwab. They cut their teeth in banking before moving into hedge funds in the multistrategy boom. Now they're in their 50s and open to alternatives. But they can't uproot children from schools. At least not yet. 

"They're looking at taxes and lifestyle and getting read to move, but they don't want to disrupt their teenage children," says Schwab. In a few years, however, this could all change.

It's why fallout from Zohan Mamdani's election as mayor of New York may not be immediate. Mamdani will become mayor on January 1st 2026. His campaign proposals included a 2% tax on incomes above $1m, with the intention of raising $4bn to fund projects like affordable housing and healthcare. These tax proposals aren't a done deal and would need to be signed off by New York Governor Kathy Hochul. For her part, Hochul has already indicated her opposition and says she doesn't want to "lose more people to Palm Beach."

Palm Beach is very ready to welcome them. Schwab - who grew up in New York but who now lives in Fort Lauderdale - crunched some numbers for the past year and found that "Florida is increasingly hiring from Florida." The state now has its own hedge fund talent, and that includes portfolio managers as well as technology and back office staff. But when Floridian hedge funds hire from out of state, New York is still their main source of talent. 

If you're an investment professional who wants to move to Florida, Citadel is the obvious choice, but funds like Schonfeld Strategic advisors, Point72, and Millennium are there too.  Florida is best known for technology and quant talent but Schwab says quant and software roles only accounted for 25% of the past year's talent flow. Another 25% of job changes were for portfolio managers and analysts. 

Some of the best jobs in the state are for homegrown Florida hedge funds, says Schwab. These include names like Voloridge Investment Management. As these funds are less well known and more regional, they're more likely to promote talent internally, he says.

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