Institutional Asset Management
The New ESG Guardians: Sovereign Investment Funds to Shape the Future Digital Economy
Jan 12th, 2021 | Filed under: Newly Added, Institutional Investing, ESG, Institutional Asset Management, Allocating to A.I., Other Topics in A.I.By Winston Ma, CFA & Esq – Adjunct Professor, NYU School of Law Who holds the power in financial markets? For many, the answer would probably be the large investment banks, big asset managers and hedge funds that are often in the media’s spotlight. But more and more a newRead More
Finally, Hindsight Is 2020
Jan 3rd, 2021 | Filed under: Private Equity, Newly Added, Asset allocation, What about beta?, Asset Allocation Models, Alternative Investments in Context, Institutional Asset Management, Hedge Funds, Private Investments, Other Topics in A.I.
By Aaron Filbeck, CFA, CAIA, CIPM, FDP – Director, Global Content Development at CAIA Association Well…we made it. This has been the longest decade year of our lives. Whether it’s been personal or professional circumstances, or simply having been an investor in this market, none of us could escape theRead More
What Is the Future of Alternatives?
Nov 17th, 2020 | Filed under: Private Equity, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Asset allocation, Asset Allocation Models, ESG, Institutional Asset Management, Hedge Funds, Private Investments, Other Topics in A.I.
By Grant Murgatroyd, senior writer EMEA at Preqin Preqin predicts that alternative assets under management will rise to $17.2 trillion in 2025. We believe the COVID-19 induced slowdown in 2020 will be temporary and lead to a larger, more efficient, and more sustainable industry. Assets under management (AUM) in alternativesRead More
Retirement’s Mid-Life Crisis
Sep 22nd, 2020 | Filed under: Private Equity, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Asset allocation, Asset Allocation Models, Other Issues in Private Investments, Alternative Investments in Context, Institutional Asset Management, Hedge Funds, Private Investments, Allocating to A.I.By Rob Croce, PhD – Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Mellon & Aaron Filbeck, CAIA, CFA, CIPM – Associate Director of Content Development at CAIA Association In 2000, United States 10-year government bonds rates were 6% and the median U.S. public pension plan had an actuarial return assumption ofRead More
Size, Expertise, and What Really Matters in Fund Selection
Sep 15th, 2020 | Filed under: Industry Size & Managers, Newly Added, Institutional InvestingLydia Ofori, CFA, CAIA Chief Executive Officer at Victoria Lion Partners Private assets have come of age, in part thanks to an over stretched liquid market which has led to little or no room for alpha generation, and also due to a growing familiarity of the concept of private ownershipRead More
Do You Know Your ABZ’s?
Aug 10th, 2020 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, What about beta?, Other Issues in Private Investments, Smart Beta, Institutional Asset Management, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Private InvestmentsBy Bill Kelly, CEO, CAIA Association Perhaps the most prescient definition of alpha is simply undiscovered beta, and if you look at this idea through the quinquagenarian endowment model, you might just see the point. In the good old days, investment performance and alpha were one in the same. Along cameRead More
Putting 2020 into Perspective: Diversification May Work Better than You Think
Aug 6th, 2020 | Filed under: CAPM / Alpha Theory, Financial Economics Theory, Newly Added, Risk management, Asset allocation, Asset Allocation Models, Alternative Investments in Context, Institutional Asset Management, Risk Management Strategies & Processes, Hedge Funds, Allocating to A.I.By Rodney Sullivan, CFA, CAIA, Executive Director, University of Virginia Darden School of Business US recessions are typically accompanied by declines in stock market returns and, of course, 2020 has been no exception. We are once again reminded that investing is not easy leaving many investors to wonder how bestRead More
Hedge Funds and Private Equity—Building Bridges—Or Not
Jul 27th, 2020 | Filed under: Private Equity, Debt Types of Private Equity, Newly Added, Asset Managers, Institutional Investing, Venture capital, Asset allocation, Equity Types of Private Equity, Asset Allocation Models, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Hedge Funds, Private InvestmentsAlternative investment managers were evolving in the context of changing market conditions even before the Covid-19 pandemic, although the virus has speeded up the process. What is emerging is an alternatives landscape where pure-play hedge funds will be rare. That is one of the conclusions of a new study byRead More
The Allusivity Premium
Jun 22nd, 2020 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, What about beta?, Liquid Alts, Alternative Investments in Context, Smart Beta, Institutional Asset Management, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Other Topics in A.I.By Bill Kelly, CEO, CAIA Association Since this What About Beta column started about two years and almost 75 entries ago, the goal has always been to take a CAIA article, a relevant news story, or an industry trend and amplify it, replete with an occasional catchy title, and maybeRead More
SAVING THE WORLD BY ‘TECHNOLOGIZING’ INSTITUTIONAL INVESTMENT
Jun 21st, 2020 | Filed under: Newly Added, Alternative data, Institutional Investing, Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Alternative Investments in Context, ESG, Endowments & Foundations, Climate change, Institutional Asset Management, Machine Learning, Other Topics in A.I.By Ashby Monk, Executive and Research Director at Global Projects Center, Stanford University & Dane Rook, Research Engineer at Global Projects Center, Stanford University “The world needs institutional investors to save society as we know it.” Say these words to your mother, and she may check your temperature; say them at aRead More
UK Stewardship Code: Stepping Up as Corporate Guardians
Jun 14th, 2020 | Filed under: Newly Added, Institutional Investing, ESG, Institutional Asset Management, Other Topics in A.I.It has been 10 years since the United Kingdom introduced a Stewardship Code, drawn up by its Financial Reporting Council (FRC), a quasi-governmental agency. The code was meant to remedy some of the inadequacies in the system of corporate governance that, it was thought, the crises of 2007-2008 had revealed.Read More
A Target Date for Target Dates
Jun 8th, 2020 | Filed under: Consultants, Retail Investing, Private Equity, Newly Added, Alternative Mutual Funds, Asset allocation, Equity Types of Private Equity, What about beta?, Asset Allocation Models, Other Issues in Private Investments, Institutional Asset Management, Private Investments, Allocating to A.I.By Aaron Filbeck, CAIA, CFA, CIPM | Associate Director, Content Development at CAIA Association While every retirement plan participant has unique life and planning circumstances, they generally (and almost evenly) split into two broad categories regarding investment philosophies: the do-it-yourself crowd and the do-it-for-me crowd. The do-it-yourself crowd typically followsRead More
Nowcasting Endowment Returns
May 21st, 2020 | Filed under: Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Asset allocation, CAIA Alternative Viewpoints, Asset Allocation Models, Endowments & Foundations, Institutional Asset ManagementBy Hossein Kazemi, PhD, CFA, Senior Advisor at CAIA Association, and Aaron Filbeck, CAIA, CFA, CIPM, Associate Director, Content Development at CAIA Association “There are at least two kinds of games. One could be called finite, the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infiniteRead More
Next Customer!
Apr 20th, 2020 | Filed under: Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Asset allocation, What about beta?, Asset Allocation Models, Alternative Investments in Context, Institutional Asset ManagementBy Bill Kelly, CAIA Association CEO Our story starts with a former Eagle Scout known as Barber. While his name had absolutely nothing to do with his ultimate professional calling, Barber Conable did, perhaps unwittingly, become the Sweeney Todd of the defined benefit plan. Barber Conable lived a noble lifeRead More
Peeling Back the Wrapper of Hedge Fund Strategies
Apr 13th, 2020 | Filed under: CAPM / Alpha Theory, Hedge Fund Strategies, Alpha & Beta, Equity Hedge Funds, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Alpha Strategies, Event-Driven Hedge Funds, CAIA Alternative Viewpoints, Liquid Alts, Institutional Asset Management, Macro and Managed Futures Funds, Hedge Funds, Relative Value Hedge Funds, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Allocating to A.I., Other Topics in A.I.By Aaron Filbeck, CAIA, CFA, CIPM, Associate Director, Content Development at CAIA Association During CAIA Association’s most recent Virtual Chapter event, Keith and I (virtually) sat down with Chris Tidmore, CFA, CPA at The Vanguard Group to discuss Vanguard’s recent whitepaper, “The Wrapper Matters: Comparing Liquid Alternatives to Hedge Funds”Read More
Be Direct with Me, Please!
Mar 19th, 2020 | Filed under: Private Equity, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Venture capital, Equity Types of Private Equity, CAIA Alternative Viewpoints, High-net-worth investors, Endowments & Foundations, Family Offices, Private InvestmentsBy Aaron Filbeck, CAIA, CFA, CIPM Associate Director, Content Development at CAIA Association Original Article: “Direct Investments” by Paul Kenny, AIAR Volume 8, Issue 3 Viewpoint Author: Aaron Filbeck, CFA, CAIA, CIPM Excerpted from the Alternative Investment Analyst Review, Volume 8, Issue 3 The Alternative Investment Analyst Review is theRead More
‘Access to private capital benefits should not require premier status’
Mar 19th, 2020 | Filed under: Newly Added, Asset allocation, CAIA Alternative Viewpoints, Asset Allocation Models, Institutional Asset ManagementJohn Bowman, CFA, Senior Managing Director at CAIA Association “If the devil can quote Scripture, in his spare time he might be working on private capital return methodology.” So uttered Bill Elfers in 1995, founder of Greylock Capital and arguably modern venture capital itself. Eleven years later in 2006, HowardRead More
Diversification Strikes Back!
Mar 13th, 2020 | Filed under: Real Estate, Private Equity, Hedge Fund Strategies, Newly Added, Asset allocation, CAIA Alternative Viewpoints, Asset Allocation Models, Institutional Asset Management, Real Estate Equity Investments, Risk Management Strategies & Processes, Hedge Funds, Private Investments, Real Assets, Allocating to A.I.By Aaron Filbeck, CFA, CAIA, CIPM, Associate Director, Content Development at CAIA Association, and Keith Black, PhD, CFA, CAIA, FDP, Managing Director, Content Strategy at CAIA Association “Diversification is back” – now that’s not a phrase we’ve heard in a long time…long time. Considering recent market performance, we thought thatRead More
Real Assets ‘Inception:’ Diversification within Diversification
Feb 27th, 2020 | Filed under: Consultants, Real Estate, Liquid and Fixed Income Real Estate, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Risk management, Asset allocation, Natural Resources and Land, CAIA Alternative Viewpoints, Asset Allocation Models, Operationally Intensive Real Assets, Endowments & Foundations, Institutional Asset Management, Real Estate Equity Investments, Risk Management Strategies & Processes, Real AssetsBy Aaron Filbeck, CFA, CAIA, CIPM, Associate Director, Content Development at CAIA Association Excerpted from the Alternative Investment Analyst Review, Volume 8, Issue 1 The Alternative Investment Analyst Review is the official publication of the CAIA Association. Access to the most current issue is an exclusive benefit of CAIA MembershipRead More
Wall Street Tackles Sustainable Development Goals
Feb 25th, 2020 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Socially responsible investing, ESG, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, SRI and Clean Energy, Other Topics in A.I.In 2015 the United Nations defined 17 Sustainable Development Goals [no poverty, no hunger, health & well-being, etc.] along with 169 targets that were devised to allow for quantitative measurement of progress. It also set 2030 as the bull’s eye for the attainment of the goals. Since governments alone areRead More
The Future of Hedge Fund Fees
Feb 18th, 2020 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Industry Trends, Consultants, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, High-net-worth investors, Endowments & Foundations, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Fees, Family Offices, Hedge Funds, Structure of the Hedge Funds IndustryWe can, in a speculative mood, ask ourselves, “Will hedge fund fees continue to drop or have they reached an equilibrium after the decline of recent years?” But it would be better to ask instead “whose fees?” For talk of the “average” fee hides the fact that discounting for volume,Read More
Making Your Portfolio About #Goals
Feb 13th, 2020 | Filed under: Performance, Analytics & Metrics, Retail Investing, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Asset allocation, Benchmarking & Performance Attribution, CAIA Alternative Viewpoints, High-net-worth investors, Asset Allocation Models, Endowments & Foundations, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Real Estate Equity Investments, Family Offices, Hedge Funds, Commodities, Private InvestmentsBy Aaron Filbeck, CFA, CAIA, CIPM, Associate Director, Content Development at CAIA Association Central Issue of the Paper If you’re a social media junkie, you have probably seen “#goals” in your timeline. In most cases, the hashtag is referring to an attractive couple or an aesthetically pleasing plate of food.Read More
Lessons from CAIS 2020
Feb 11th, 2020 | Filed under: Debt Types of Private Equity, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Socially responsible investing, Equity Types of Private Equity, Artificial Intelligence, CAIA Alternative Viewpoints, Alternative Investments in Context, ESG, Economics, Climate change, Institutional Asset Management, Hedge Funds, Macroeconomics, Private Investments, Personalities in AI, SRI and Clean Energy, Allocating to A.I., Other Topics in A.I.John Bowman, CFA, Senior Managing Director at CAIA Association “You’re a kite dancing in a hurricane, Mr. Bond.” (Mr. White to 007, Spectre) Despite the crystal blue island water, softly rolling Caribbean tide, and perfect skies outside the hotel all week, I opened my conference wrap-up panel reminding delegates forRead More
Climate: The ‘OUR’ Between Dog and Wolf
Feb 10th, 2020 | Filed under: Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Media Coverage of Hedge Funds, Socially responsible investing, The Global Economy & Currencies, What about beta?, Alternative Investments in Context, ESG, Economics, Climate change, Institutional Asset Management, Hedge Funds, Macroeconomics, Private Investments, SRI and Clean Energy, Finance & Economics, Other Topics in A.I.By Bill Kelly, CEO, CAIA Association While this week’s post may harken to a certain book written by John Coates, there is a different play on the metaphor at work here, with our wheezing planet spinning in the center. Consider the wolf: powerful, aggressive, and risk-seeking. The wolf is alsoRead More
The Case for ESG as a Performance Additive
Feb 4th, 2020 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, ESG, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Other Topics in A.I.Sustainability-sensitive investing has a net positive impact on performance, according to a paper released by Robeco. According to the paper written by Chris Berkouwer, a Robeco equity analyst, ESG was responsible for 20% of the outperformance of a Robeco fund over a period of three years. His findings are presentedRead More
Leery Funk’s Open Letter to Sovereign Leaders
Jan 27th, 2020 | Filed under: Consultants, Retail Investing, Private Equity, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, The Global Economy & Currencies, What about beta?, Alternative Investments in Context, Endowments & Foundations, Economics, Climate change, Institutional Asset Management, Macroeconomics, Private Investments, Finance & EconomicsBy Bill Kelly, CAIA Association CEO In the interest of brevity, I am going to skip the salutation and get right to the heart of the matter. As my name implies, I am Leery of the lofty promises that depend on solving our long-term problems and I do remain inRead More
SASB + TCFD = Common ESG Disclosure Standards?
Jan 26th, 2020 | Filed under: Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Risk management, ESG, Climate change, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Risk Management Strategies & Processes, Macroeconomics, Risk Management & Operations, Other Topics in A.I.The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), a non-profit organization has developed industry-specific standards across environmental, social, and governance topics, working toward a consensus on the sorts of disclosures that the issuers of securities should and will make to their investors. In November 2018, SASB released complete standards for 77 industries.Read More
Hope May Not Be a Strategy…But Neither is a 60/40
Jan 21st, 2020 | Filed under: Consultants, Retail Investing, Alpha & Beta, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Risk management, Asset allocation, What about beta?, Asset Allocation Models, Alternative Investments in Context, Institutional Asset Management, Risk Management Strategies & Processes, Allocating to A.I.By Guest Contributor Aaron Filbeck, CFA, CAIA, CIPM, Associate Director, Content Development The death of the 60/40 may be a welcome change for multi-asset investors who understand that exposure to risk premia is perhaps a far better long-term investment strategy. Diversification remains an important facet of asset allocation, but weRead More
An Alternative View of Manager Selection Risk
Jan 16th, 2020 | Filed under: Performance, Analytics & Metrics, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Risk management, Asset allocation, Benchmarking & Performance Attribution, Asset Allocation Models, Other Issues in Private Investments, Risk Metrics and Measurement, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Risk Management Strategies & Processes, Hedge Funds, Private Investments, Risk Management & Operations, Allocating to A.I.By Aaron Filbeck, CFA, CAIA, CIPM & Hossein Kazemi, PhD, CFA, CAIA Association & CISDM This is a summary of the editor’s letter originally published in the Volume 8, Issue 4 of the Alternative Investment Analyst Review, a journal published by CAIA Association. The Problem with Studies Many studies onRead More
Simpler Rules for Commodity Pools
Jan 9th, 2020 | Filed under: Investing in Commodities, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Regulatory, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Family Offices, CommoditiesThe Commodity Futures Trading Commission has changed the rules for the managers of commodity pools. The new regulations, approved in November and published in the Federal Register for Dec. 10, take effect on Thursday, January 9, 2020. Some key points about these changes: They have codified Family Office No-Action Letters,Read More
SHARE BUYBACKS OR COMPOSITE EQUITY ISSUANCE?
Jan 1st, 2020 | Filed under: CAPM / Alpha Theory, Financial Economics Theory, Newly Added, The Global Economy & Currencies, Emerging markets, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Finance & EconomicsBy Daniel Fang, CFA, CAIA, Quantitative Research, and Diana Olteanu-Veerman, CFA, Quantitative Strategy, Northern Trust Asset Management Composite Equity Issuance (Cei) Can be a Proxy for Intangible Returns Anomalies Even though factor investing is widely supported in academia and investment practice, forecasting and harvesting factor returns remains challenging for various reasons.Read More
Ebenezer Scrooge: An Alternative View
Dec 23rd, 2019 | Filed under: Alpha-centric Companies, Social investing, Industry Size & Managers, Newly Added, Asset Managers, Institutional Investing, Socially responsible investing, What about beta?, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Hedge Funds, SRI and Clean Energy, Other Topics in A.I.By Bill Kelly, CEO, CAIA Association Ebenezer Scrooge was not exactly a cuddly CEO. The way he treated poor Bob Cratchit alone would not have exactly put Scrooge & Marley Ltd. in the top quartile of the Sustainalytics’ ESG Risk Ratings, as he routinely gutted any notion of social responsibility.Read More
Investment Management: Time for New Leaders and Exiting Comfort Zones
Dec 10th, 2019 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Industry Trends, Consultants, Private Equity, Industry Size & Managers, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Socially responsible investing, Equity Types of Private Equity, Other Issues in Private Investments, Business News, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Hedge Funds, Private Investments, SRI and Clean EnergyDisruption is the trend of the moment in many industries and the investment world is no exception. Deloitte Insights has just posted an article that takes a comprehensive look at the investment world today, traditional and alternative. Its theme is that this world is in search of new leadership andRead More
Central Bank Policies Put the Squeeze on Pension Funds
Dec 5th, 2019 | Filed under: Financial Economics Theory, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Finance & EconomicsAmundi-CREATE Research has offered its independent assessment on challenges now faced by the world’s pension funds, given the policies of central banks. The subject is of great significance to alternative investments managers who represent the aggressive end of many a pension fund’s portfolio. The gist of the report is thatRead More
Looking for Bias: Hedge Funds, Funds of Funds and Prime Brokers
Nov 28th, 2019 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Industry Trends, Hedge Fund Strategies, Equity Hedge Funds, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Funds of Hedge Funds, The A.I. Industry, Hedge Funds, Structure of the Hedge Funds Industry, Allocating to A.I.Prime brokers help funds of hedge funds identify hedge funds, which creates what the authors of a new paper call a PB bias. This means that portfolios are overweighted to the hedge funds serviced by the connected prime brokers. The scholars tested (and confirmed) the intuitive hypothesis that the biasRead More
Democratization Without Education
Nov 18th, 2019 | Filed under: Consultants, Retail Investing, Private Equity, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Asset allocation, What about beta?, High-net-worth investors, Asset Allocation Models, Other Issues in Private Investments, Alternative Investments in Context, Endowments & Foundations, Institutional Asset Management, Family Offices, Private Investments, Allocating to A.I.By Bill Kelly, CAIA Association CEO The American history buffs out there will know that we are just a few short weeks away from the 246th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. Back in 1773, the British government was deep in debt and decided the very best course was toRead More
Investors Want Liquidity and They Want it Now
Nov 7th, 2019 | Filed under: Private Equity, Hedge Fund Strategies, Debt Types of Private Equity, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Equity Types of Private Equity, The Global Economy & Currencies, Other Issues in Private Investments, Business News, Economics, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Hedge Funds, Macroeconomics, Private Investments, Allocating to A.I., Finance & Economics, Other Topics in A.I.A recent publication from Fidelity Institutional Asset Management, while looking at the money markets in the US, emphasizes that investors are looking for liquidity. The report, written by Kerry Pope and Chris Lewis, each an institutional portfolio manager with FIAM, begins with a discussion of the Federal Reserve’s September rateRead More
A Harvard Education
Oct 28th, 2019 | Filed under: Newly Added, Academic Foundations, Institutional Investing, Asset allocation, What about beta?, Asset Allocation Models, Other Issues in Private Investments, Endowments & Foundations, Institutional Asset Management, Private Investments, Personalities in AI, Allocating to A.I.By Bill Kelly, CEO, CAIA Association While Harvard the institution is legendary, much less is known about its founding other than by some who have taken those tedious Cambridge tours or the gifted alum who studied their way in through one of those 25 famous gates. Harvard College was foundedRead More
Improve Private Funds, Don’t Do Away with Them
Oct 22nd, 2019 | Filed under: Consultants, Private Equity, Debt Types of Private Equity, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Equity Types of Private Equity, Other Issues in Private Investments, Endowments & Foundations, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Private Investments, Allocating to A.I.By John L. Bowman, CFA This editorial first appeared on Sept. 18 in Crain’s Pensions & Investments online edition. It’s open season on private equity in the Democratic presidential debates. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and others have made attacking “Wall Street” a major plank in their campaign platforms.Read More
New Study Shows Hedge Fund Investors are Quick Learners
Sep 3rd, 2019 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Industry Trends, Consultants, Hedge Fund Strategies, Equity Hedge Funds, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Event-Driven Hedge Funds, High-net-worth investors, Endowments & Foundations, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Family Offices, Hedge FundsA recent study by two scholars at the University of California Irvine asks how quickly investors learn about the skills of their asset managers, including their hedge fund managers. Christopher Schwarz and Zheng Sun, both associate professors of finance at The Paul Merage School of Business at UC Irvine, hadRead More
How Endowments and Foundations Look at Hedge Funds
Aug 8th, 2019 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Industry Trends, Consultants, Private Equity, Hedge Fund Strategies, Equity Hedge Funds, Debt Types of Private Equity, Newly Added, Venture capital, Equity Types of Private Equity, High-net-worth investors, Endowments & Foundations, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Fees, Family Offices, Hedge Funds, Private InvestmentsCowen’s Capital Introduction Group has compiled information on what the endowment and foundation community is thinking about hedge funds and how best to invest in them. The Cowen paper on the subject begins with the observation, drawn from Preqin, that at present US-based E&Fs with more than $750 million inRead More
Restrictions on Pension Plan Investments: A Global Survey
Jul 16th, 2019 | Filed under: Derivatives, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Hedge Funds, Commodities, Structured Products, Allocating to A.I.A new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development surveys the main quantitative investment restrictions to which pension funds and other pension providers are subject in both OECD countries and a selection of International Organization of Pension Supervisors’ (IOPS) member countries. It reminds us of the general desireRead More
The Audacity of Opacity
Jul 15th, 2019 | Filed under: Consultants, Private Equity, Industry Size & Managers, Newly Added, Asset Managers, Institutional Investing, Media Coverage of Hedge Funds, What about beta?, High-net-worth investors, Alternative Investments in Context, Endowments & Foundations, Institutional Asset Management, Family Offices, Hedge Funds, Private Investments, Allocating to A.I.By Bill Kelly, CEO, CAIA Association Why are we still talking about this? No, it’s not the central bankers and their insatiable easing tendencies, trade wars with China, or even the Women’s World Cup football match (sorry Netherlands!). These stories all make great headlines, drive news ratings, generate tickertape parades,Read More
The Dangers and Attractions of Infrastructure Investing
Jul 4th, 2019 | Filed under: Infrastructure, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Natural Resources and Land, Other Issues in Private Investments, Operationally Intensive Real Assets, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Real Assets, Other Topics in A.I.An arm of Brookfield Asset Management, Brookfield Infrastructure, announced that it is leading a group of investors to buy Genesee & Wyoming for a cash payment of $112 per share, a premium of nearly 40% over the pre-announcement stock price. This is a big infrastructure play. G&W is a freightRead More
SOS
Jul 1st, 2019 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Asset allocation, What about beta?, Asset Allocation Models, Alternative Investments in Context, Institutional Asset Management, Allocating to A.I., Other Topics in A.I.By Bill Kelly, CEO, CAIA Association Ask someone of a certain generation to name the most common worldwide distress signal, and they will likely come back with SOS. No surprise then that this same signal, borne from the Morse code, turns 111 years old on this date in history. MostRead More
Advising the Ultra-Wealthy: The State of the Industry
Jun 12th, 2019 | Filed under: Consultants, Newly Added, High-net-worth investors, The A.I. Industry, Family OfficesThe Family Office Exchange (FOX) has released a report on the state of the ultra-wealthy advisory business. The report, based on a survey and interviews, draws three broad conclusions: first, the business is in a healthy condition; second, its value proposition is in transition, away from asset-based and toward retainer-basedRead More
The Mysterious Shortfall in Women Chief Investment Officers
May 22nd, 2019 | Filed under: Newly Added, Academic Foundations, Institutional Investing, Endowments & Foundations, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Practitioners, Personalities in AIBy Charles Skorina We recently looked at the number of women CIOs at big endowments*. Among 109 North American endowments over $1 billion we identified twenty (18 plus one director of investments and one CFO who liaises with their OCIO providers). That’s just 18%–less than one out of five. ForRead More
The Big List: 5-year Endowment Performance
Apr 23rd, 2019 | Filed under: Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Endowments & Foundations, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset ManagementBy Charles Skorina In February we published an abbreviated list of five-year endowment performance for fiscal year end June 30, 2018 for 61 schools to compliment the release of the annual NACUBO TIAA study. Today, we introduce our big list with one hundred large endowments. Every CIO on our listRead More
Nonprofits Gird for Tough New Tax Rules
Mar 26th, 2019 | Filed under: Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Endowments & Foundations, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset ManagementBy Charles Skorina We’re executive recruiters, not lawyers, so you generally won’t catch us opining on important lawyerly stuff like detinue, replevin, trover; or even usufruct (especially usufruct). We’ll leave all that to the learned JDs. But, in our daily conversations with investment heads in the nonprofit world, we’ve beenRead More
Was 2014 a Turning Point for ESG Investing?
Mar 7th, 2019 | Filed under: Social investing, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Socially responsible investing, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Emerging Alternative Investments, SRI and Clean EnergyAmundi, the French asset management firm that, less than a year ago, launched the world’s largest green bond and emerging markets-focused investment, has just posted a scholarly discussion, “How ESG Investing Has Impacted the Asset Pricing in the Equity Market.” The paper begins by saying that academic study of ESG firmsRead More