The Boutique Fund Manager Forum has been created to promote co-operation between companies in this subsection of the market, who face unique issues and aren't well represented in wider industry groups.

The forum includes Pathfinder Asset Management, Mint Asset Management, Elevation Capital, Pie Funds, Staples Rodway, Goldman Henry Capital Management, King Tide Asset Management and Diversified Investment Strategies.

Pathfinder executive director John Berry told Good Returns that while the forum would work together on issues such as regulation, it wasn't planning to do shared promotion and distribution of its members' products.

"The way we prefer to do things at Pathfinder is working one on one with advisers.  That could be something we look at in future but it's not on our agenda at the moment.

"Paul [Brownsey] and I have noticed that boutiques tend to work in isolation when we should be working together.  The Forum is about sharing ideas and working on common interests.  It is not intended to become a marketing vehicle."

Berry said it would be a "loose association" rather than a "formal website structure".

To be a member a boutique must be owned by the principals in the business and not owned by institutions: "We want members who live and breathe their fund business."

He said the forum was for companies "at the smaller end of town" with up to about $300 million under management.

"It's the one club where you'll be applauded when you get thrown out," he said.