David Gordon has a knack for helping institutional investors find the best hedge fund managers. As a principal with Chicago-based fund of hedge funds Glenwood Capital Investments, he worked closely with founder Frank Meyer, who provided seed money for Ken Griffin's $11 billion Citadel Investment Group. Now Gordon, 38, will lend his expertise to wealthy families. He's become a partner at Veritable, an investment consulting firm based outside Philadelphia.

Gordon, who left Glenwood two years ago, says he's excited to work with families, given how difficult it can be for them to find and access talented money managers. Veritable, founded 20 years ago, has a team of 65 working out of a renovated 19th-century farmhouse on 25 acres in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. The firm oversees the assets of 130 clients.

"I was really attracted to the fact that Veritable can run a smaller, $70 million portfolio with all the resources and expertise of a $7 billion multifamily office, and doesn't simply follow the crowd in selecting money managers," says Gordon. He has known Veritable investment chief David Belej for nearly as long as the firm has existed. "It's very much like working with Frank at Glenwood in that we're talking to managers today that many of our competitors probably won't hear about for years."

Gordon's challenge will be compounded by the tax burden his clients face. Managers make their incentive fees based on their funds' gross, pretax returns. "Many, if not all, hedge fund investments are tax-inefficient," he says bluntly, "which only raises the bar even higher for us."