I don’t think it was a good idea to put it all in one place. He might have been better off if he used four or five different firms.
It really wouldn’t have mattered. Any firm you picked, with instructions like that, would have lost money. I think limiting the capital loss to only 10% shows JPM invested the money relatively conservatively. There were many structured high-income vehicles advertised as ‘safe’ that lost more than 50%.
Thats how some people lost all their money with Madoff indirectly. They chose a few of these financial management companies who then invested with Madoff due to his great returns.