May 18 (Bloomberg) -- SAC Capital Advisors LLC, the $14 billion hedge-fund firm run by Steven Cohen, will allow investors to take their money out of its flagship fund every quarter, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Clients previously had their money tied up in the SAC Capital International Ltd. fund for three years, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The change will take place June 1, the person said.

SAC, started by Cohen in 1992, opened its main fund to new investors in 2009 for the first time in three years. The Stamford, Connecticut-based fund gained 10 percent this year through April after losing 18 percent in 2008. Hedge funds are paying more attention to customers after record investment losses and withdrawals cut industry assets by 37 percent to $1.2 trillion last year.

“The changes that hedge-fund managers are enacting are a culmination of the lessons learned in the past 12 months or so,” said Steven Nadel, a partner at Seward & Kissel LLP, a New York-based law firm whose clients include hedge funds. “Many managers are looking to raise capital in a challenging environment and are sensitive to investor demand.”

The changes to SAC’s fund were reported earlier by the Dealbreaker Web site. Cohen, 52, declined to comment through a spokesman.

The firm will restrict withdrawals only if an individual client seeks to remove 25 percent or more of their money from the fund, the person said.

For new investors, the firm won’t segregate assets into funds known as side pockets, the person said. Investment managers including New York-based Harbinger Capital Partners have split hard-to-sell investments into separate funds to avoid selling them at distressed prices.

Hedge funds are private, largely unregulated pools of capital whose managers can buy or sell any assets, bet on falling as well as rising asset prices and participate substantially in profits from money invested.

To contact the reporter on this story: Saijel Kishan in New York at skishan@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: May 18, 2009 12:04 EDT