According to a survey, amid over 400 portfolio managers and more than 100 hedge fund firms, by executive recruiter Heidrick & Struggles International Inc, last year US hedge funds lost staff to endowments, sovereign wealth funds and the SEC. This trend seems to continue during 2010.

Veteran hedge fund and markets professionals are also in demand at the SEC, where a promise of increasing government enforcement and the creation of a new Division of Risk, Strategy, and Financial Innovation are leading to new hires.

Funds with less than $1 billion under management are found to be especially vulnerable with 900 funds liquidated last year, after 1,500 liquidations in the prior year.

The prospect of more funds liquidating will have a direct influence on flows of talent this year as professionals seek to move to more stable firms. Companies with access to sizable, stable capital are less at risk of losing top staffers as are those hedge funds that allow a high degree of autonomy, according to the report.

Heidrick & Struggles’s report forecasts professionals can expectedly get compensation guarantees to return this year, although more employers will insist on deferrals and clawback clauses. The company also anticipates bidding wars to resume.