An article in The Wall Street Journal quips, “The people running your money have a lot to prove in 2019,” arguing that hedge fund managers will have to show that they’re “worth their high fees.” It also notes that, on the passive investment side, a “price war is afoot.”

The article outlines a list of money managers to watch in the coming year:

• David Einhorn: Although the Greenlight Capital president had another rough year in 2018, the article says he “has no plans to close and return investors’ money,” according to a source familiar with the firm, adding that as 2019 begins, Einhorn “retains some advantages not enjoyed by other hedge-fund managers that closed shop in 2018.”
• Daniel Sundheim: His firm, D1 Capital Partners, grew assets under management to about $5 billion last year, at a time when many hedge-fund managers struggled to attract funds. “Still,” the article says, Sundheim’s performance has been uneven, and his “successful fundraising doesn’t change the simple reality that the hedge-fund model is under pressure.”
• Kathleen Murphy: The president of Fidelity’s personal-investing division oversees more than $2 trillion and some 15,000 employees. Her ten-year tenure, the article reports, marks “a decade that saw the firm complete its transformation from a savvy stock picker to an investing behemoth that helps people more broadly manage their investing dollars.”
• Mark Wiseman:BlackRock’s senior managing director, is fronting the firm’s “bid to join the big leagues of private-equity deal makers” by overseeing the company’s push to raise $12 billion to take direct stakes in private companies.

“With net inflows slowing, price wars raging and many of their stocks lagging, asset managers including BlackRock need to find new ways to expand,” the article concludes.