For decades, nearly everything that the billionaire Julian Robertson touched turned to gold. Mr. Robertson, founder of the hedge fund Tiger Management, seeded a network of hugely successful “Tiger Cubs” — companies that in turn seeded more talent. It became the closest thing the hedge fund industry had to a dynasty.

Since the start of this year, however, the managers of three firms spun out of that gilded empire have called it quits after volatile performances and sometimes steep losses. They will return money to investors and focus on managing their own wealth.

TigerShark, Tiger Consumer and JAT Capital Management are just three examples among a recent wave of hedge funds that have closed their doors to investors in the face of choppy markets. They are a reminder that the hedge fund industry is not all spectacular returns.

In past years, titans like George Soros and Stanley F. Druckenmiller have also taken down their shingles, choosing to manage their own enormous wealth without the worry of pesky investors.

These days, bothersome investors who make too many demands are just one item on a long list of frustrations. Privately, and sometimes publicly, managers complain that it has become harder to make money and that regulation has raised the cost of business.

Add to that six long years of a bull stock market in the United States, and a coinciding six consecutive years of underperformance from the hedge fund industry. The average hedge fund returned 3 percent last year compared with a 13.7 percent gain for the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index.

“If you have enough money and on top of that it’s a tough market and you don’t want to deal with investors asking about performance, you can take the high road and say, ‘Here’s your money back,’” said Steven Nadel, a hedge fund lawyer at Seward & Kissel.

Managers typically deliver the news in letters that emphasize soul-searching and express gratitude. John A. Thaler, the founder of the eight-year-old JAT Capital, told investors his decision “required a tremendous amount of self-reflection and intellectual honesty.” Patrick McCormack, who built and managed Tiger Consumer for more than 15 years, called it “one of the most difficult decisions I have faced.”

Others are more direct. For Gideon King, of Loeb King Capital Management, running a hedge fund had just become “too cumbersome.” Mr. King, who has been managing money for 21 years, informed his investors in a letter in January that he would be closing the doors.

All three have chosen instead to invest their vast personal wealth through so-called family offices, which means fewer regulatory hurdles and compliance costs. As a family office, each will not have to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Regulatory changes, a result of the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul, have helped shine a light on the opaque hedge fund industry. But the new rules have also made it more bureaucratic. Hedge funds spend millions of dollars for compliance officers and hire teams of lawyers to deal with rules that require disclosures about their business.

Mr. King highlighted this increase in paperwork in his letter to investors. “As the endless quest for becoming institutional continues on, the soul of investing might get lost, as the unmitigated compliance processes become cumbersome and interfere with the purity of speculative contemplation,” he wrote. Mr. King declined to comment for this article.

At the same time, disgruntled investors are making more noise.

Some are fed up with paying high fees for little returns. Hedge funds typically follow a “2 and 20” model in which investors pay an annual management fee of 2 percent of assets under management and 20 percent of returns.

Citing expense and complexity, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest pension fund in the United States,announced last September that it would eliminate all of its $4 billion of hedge fund investments. Over the last six months, investors have redeemed $34.6 billion from hedge funds according to BarclayHedge and TrimTabs Investment Research, the largest quarterly outflow since 2009.

TigerShark, founded by Tom Facciola and Michael Sears, was one of the first hedge funds to be seeded by Mr. Robertson in 2001. During the depths of the financial crisis in 2008, it made investors money when the markets were down. But its fortunes turned more recently when it reported double-digit losses in 2011. When TigerShark told investors it would return their money in March, it had posted a 1.9 percent loss in the first month of the year. Mr. Facciola declined to comment.

JAT Capital, which was seeded by Chris Shumway, a top deputy to Mr. Robertson, had volatile performance for several years. In 2013, it was ranked as one of the most successful hedge funds of the year, returning more than 30 percent for investors. But last year, it reported a loss of 11 percent after making bets on high-flying technology stocks that later came crashing down. JAT Capital fought its way back at the start of this year, reporting a gain of 4.4 percent in the first three months of 2015. Last week, the firm told investors it would close shop. Mr. Thaler declined to comment.

Tiger Consumer lost 1.1 percent in 2014. Before the fund closed in March, it reported gains of 2.6 percent over the first three months of the year.

Mr. McCormick, a protégé of Mr. Robertson, highlighted in his letter to investors that while his work was “rewarding,” it was also “demanding work.” He declined to comment.

“Most of the people that are closing down these days have underperformed recently and have seen investor assets leave, or can see the writing on the wall, and they just look at it and say, ‘The added cost of having external investors is just not worth it anymore,’” said Simon Fludgate, a partner at the hedge fund advisory firm Aksia.

In an industry that was once known for its swashbuckling style, it has become harder to stand out.

Even as some investors withdraw their money from hedge funds, a greater number are pouring money in for the first time, bringing the industry’s assets under management to nearly $3 trillion. That has made it hard for hedge funds to carve out a niche.

This is the case in the world of activism, a hedge fund strategy in which investors buy a small stake in a company and pressure it to make changes.

Activist campaigns have not only delivered outsize returns but have also attracted newcomers.

So many hedge fund managers are turning into activists that companies often discover that more than one activist has a plan for how they can change.

“Clearly, with the parade of announcements including this past week, it is definitely a trend,” said Thomas R. Livergood, chief executive of the Family Wealth Alliance, a family office consultancy, referring to the announcement by JAT Capital last Monday. “It’s a tough ballgame to be in.”