The managers identified a bond where the servicer was not correctly interpreting the payout. In this case, the servicer was paying the principal on the bonds to an insurance company before the senior bondholders. It was paying the insurance company for losses the insurance company had previously paid out on mezzanine bonds. Insurance recovery rights are called rights of subrogation. ESM bought the senior bonds and challenged the servicer.
Litigation Trade Example
William Van de Water, Portfolio Manager
William R. Van de Water, Portfolio Manager is portfolio manager of an event-driven, non-agency RMBS strategy at Rational Funds. He joined ESM as a RMBS analyst and trader in June 2009 and became a managing director in December 2009. In 2014, Mr. Van de Water became a co-portfolio manager at ESM Management. From 2005 through March 2009, Mr. Van de Water worked in the Boston office of Susquehanna International Group. His primary responsibility was to analyze, and trade mortgage backed securities. Mr. Van de Water earned joint B.S. degrees in Physics, Business, Economics, and Management from the California Institute of Technology in 2005.