Weintraub Capital Management, a $1 billion San Francisco-based long-short equity hedge fund, will return money to investors and become a family office overseeing the wealth of founder Jerry Weintraub, Bloomberg reported.

“Like lots of big decisions, it’s not any one particular thing, it’s a process,” Weintraub was quoted by the news service as saying in an interview. “It’s been a great run for myself and for my co-workers, and for a variety of reasons we decided it was best to wind down.”

Weintraub, who started the firm in 1992, declined to specify what led to his decision.

In July last year, Soros Fund Management said it will stop managing funds for outside investors and become a family office. To some extent, regulatory changes in the US and elsewhere may be a factor. Industry experts last year told WealthBriefing that in the case of the Soros firm, it would have to have been registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission by March 2012 along with hundreds of other asset managers, including firms outside the US and here in the UK.

In October this year, a New York-based multi-strategy hedge fund firm, Brencourt Advisors, returned outside capital to investors and re-invented itself as a family office. Brencourt will liquidate most of its external client funds by the end of the year.

Weintraub Capital Management rose by 3 per cent this year through October and had only two years of negative returns during its two decades, falling about 3 per cent both times, Weintraub was quoted as saying.

Investors will receive 90 per cent of their capital by year-end and the rest after an audit to be held in March or April, Weintraub said.

Weintraub employs 14 people, four of whom are administrators. Some of the administrators will be retained for the family office and the investment employees won’t be, he added.