Small hedge funds gaining bigger slice of institutional money

``The big draw for executives of return-hungry defined benefit plans is the superior performance of smaller hedge fund managers. Hedge funds managing less than $50 million returned an aggregate 13.1% on an annualized basis in the 15 years ended Dec. 31, according to Hedge Fund Research Inc., Chicago. Those smaller funds outperformed the 11.62% aggregate annualized return of hedge funds with more than $1 billion, as well as the 10.23% annualized return of the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite index for the same period, HFR data showed. ''