Anthony Scaramucci, the hedge fund manager of SkyBridge Capital, made headlines last month when he asked President Obama on television when he was going to “stop whacking Wall Street like a piñata.”

Since then, Mr. Scaramucci has become the piñata, taking hits in the media for his apparent naiveté from the comedian Jon Stewart and others.

But it wasn’t supposed to be that way. Mr. Scaramucci had hoped his media appearances would have raised the profile of Wall Street and his firm, not take it down a notch. “That is why I am up on CNBC and putting myself out there,” Mr. Scaramucci told DealBook. “I am willing to use the media to explain to people the industry so that they would gain more comfort investing in it, as well as in SkyBridge.”

Mr. Scaramucci, 46, has been a regular on CNBC’s “Fast Money” program for years, but he has stepped up his media appearances in the past few months as he markets his newest investment vehicle, a fund of hedge funds that his firm acquired from Citigroup this year.

A fund of funds enables investors to diversify their holdings by allocating their capital to multiple hedge funds.

“When you hear the words ‘hedge fund,’ the next word you hear is ‘pariah’ — we are a social outcast,” Mr. Scaramucci told DealBook. “My vision is to bring hedge funds to the masses so that we will no longer be looked at like a pariah.”

But to invest in a fund of fund, an investor normally needs to be “accredited” by the government, meaning that they need to earn at least $200,000 a year and have a net worth of at least $1 million. Furthermore, to get into most funds of funds, an investor had to put up a lot of money — usually $1 million or more. It is an expensive way to pay for diversification, as investors normally pay a fund of fund 1 percent of the assets they put into that hedge fund and a performance fee of 10 percent — on top of a multitude of other fees.

Mr. Scaramucci told a gathering of fund managers at the Capital IQ Investor Leadership Forum in New York on Tuesday that the fund-of-funds business was not functioning adequately in its current form and needed a shakeup. He noted that there was some debate as to whether funds of funds truly added value after taking into account the multiple levels of fees that investors paid to fund managers.

Mr. Scaramucci wants to, in his words, “mutualize” the fund-of-funds business by opening up the hedge fund world to everyday investors. This concept is not new, but Mr. Scaramucci believes that it will be the next big growth area in investment management.

“What I see is there is an opportunity for fund of funds to position themselves to be a chief investment officer for a whole group of people who don’t have exposure to hedge funds but who need exposure to hedge funds,” Mr. Scaramucci said.

To get around accreditation rules and minimums, Mr. Scaramucci proposes that investors buy shares in a fund-of-fund investment vehicle. If the fund’s managers made money, the value of their shares would go up. If the fund’s managers lost money, the value would fall. Investors would pay a flat 1.5 percent management fee on the assets to Skybridge with no performance fee.

But some fund managers question the need for smaller investors to gain hedge fund exposure at all, saying that the fees are simply not worth it.

“What you are really outsourcing here is asset allocation,” one fund manager said at the Capital IQ conference, asking not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak for his firm. “People first need to look at the strategy, not the vehicle to get you there.”

There are a number of ways to gain hedge fund exposure without paying the high fees associated with a fund of funds. An investor could buy a hedge fund replicator index, which tracks hedge fund performance for a fraction of the cost. Investors could also buy an exchange-traded fund that mirrors some of the most popular hedge fund strategies.

But Mr. Scaramucci sees his fund as an alternative to the index funds. He notes that his fund is actively managed by seasoned investors who are willing to make the tough calls and generate sufficient returns to cover the fees. For example, he said, hedge fund replicators are yielding around 1 percent this year, while his fund is up about 9 percent.

“You have to make a decision whether you want a command and control fund operated by a portfolio manager who is actually flying the plane or if you want something that is autopilot,” Mr. Scaramucci said. “This is a Tiffany product, and you have to pay a little more for it.”

Mr. Scaramucci, helped by Smith Barney advisers, has been successful in selling the the retail fund of funds, known as the SkyBridge Series G fund, to investors. The fund’s assets are up $91 million, or about 12 percent, since he closed on the acquisition of the fund from Citigroup three months ago.

It is too early to tell whether the recent media attention about Mr. Scaramucci will ultimately hurt or help SkyBridge build its retail fund-of-fund business. But he is sticking by his comments about Wall Street being a piñata.

“Time and perspective will judge my world view correctly,” Mr. Scaramucci told DealBook. “This politics of hate and this politics of divisiveness — which is polarizing and could potentially help in a short-term election — is not the answer for society.”

— Cyrus Sanati

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