Texas Hemmaplardh
Co-Head of US Endowments
You should carefully review your objectives and beliefs and assess whether they have been changed and how they can be documented. Below are some questions to help guide your review:
Align investment strategy with your objectives and beliefs. You should consider having a broad opportunity set available across the full range of asset classes.
Consider how your strategy helps you achieve these goals and assess options if it doesn’t. What strategic asset allocation helps you get the return you need, allows you to spend at the rate you need and fits with your risk appetite? How can you ensure your investments make a sustainable, positive impact?
Many of our clients want to spend more time on their core charitable purpose. However, they recognise that this requires financial success in their investment portfolios. This can be a challenge in terms of time, resources and expertise.(1)
One large charitable trust we worked with wanted to build a longer-term strategy, incorporating sustainability and the ability to fund the grants at the core of the trust’s mission. The trust’s investments were not well diversified and were exposed to potentially significant risk from falling asset prices.
Meanwhile, the trustee board needed to manage the operational aspects of its investments, however its in-house team didn’t have the resources and expertise to do so.
We worked with the trustee board to design a strategy to support a consistent level of grants each year, while seeking to retain the real value of trust assets over the long term. Together, we implemented a robust, diversified and ESG-aware investment strategy, helping reduce risk and position the fund to access potential opportunities.
We then implemented the strategy on behalf of our client through a range of highly-rated asset managers(2) that were reviewed and assessed by our global research team. We helped them efficiently access private market opportunities without the need for additional internal operational resources. The client now makes investment decisions based on better reporting and transparency around their portfolio. By working as an extension of their team, we provide our client with the opportunity to focus on other priorities for their mission.
US $16.2 trillion in global assets under advisement1
US $548 billion in global assets under management2
More than 11,900 investment strategies rated3
More than 3,000 asset managers rated4
*ESG investing refers to environmental, social, and governance considerations that may have a material impact on financial performance, and therefore are taken into account, alongside other economic and financial metrics, in assessing the risk and return potential of an investment. Thematic investing involves investing with a goal, at least in part, to achieve an impact on an environmental, social, or governance issue, alongside generating return and mitigating risk. As always, the decision whether to invest in ESG-themed options, like all options, must be made pursuant to a prudent process with the objective of advancing the financial interest of the plan and its participants.
**Fee savings cannot be guaranteed.
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