Is it worth hiring Messi to be your fund manager?

A STRANGE question, right? After all, Lionel Messi is a world-famous football player, not a fund manager. So let me explain.

When investors look for fund managers to invest with, they often look for "rock star" managers - Messi equivalents in the world of finance. A typical, desirable fund manager should graduate from an Ivy League college and also have an MBA degree from one of the world's top business schools. They should have worked on Wall Street for some years, and preferably look attractive and talk smart. They should also have produced eye catching returns for a reasonable length of time and boast a track record that is difficult for investors to ignore.

This is how most investors would choose their managers. And it often goes wrong.