Should You Avoid Commitment (Facilities)?
In short, no—their use isn’t going away any time soon. Rather than avoid them, incorporate new elements to more clearly assess the manager’s true investment skill.
June 2018
Insights
Will the Addition of Chinese A-shares to MSCI’s Global Indexes Trigger an A-Share Rally?
No, MSCI index inclusion will not trigger a bull market in Chinese A-shares.* Given the very modest initial weights and the lack of clarity on future increases, we doubt that index-driven flows will drive share prices meaningfully higher.
June 2018
Should Fixed Income Derivatives Play a Role in Liability Hedging for Pension Plans?
Yes. Since fixed income derivatives are more capital efficient and flexible than physical bonds, they can play a key role in liability hedging for many corporate and other single-employer pension plans.
May 2018
Policy Benchmarking: Best Practices for Private Investments
For investors with private allocations, how one incorporates them into the policy benchmark will materially impact the portfolio’s relative performance, making the choice key to informed decision making. We review the various methodologies used and make a series of recommendations on best practices to follow. In considering the performance of private investments within the total portfolio, we anchor to a set of principles: keep it simple, don’t treat private investments differently, and make performance evaluation as meaningful as possible.
May 2018
Portfolio Benchmarking: Best Practices for Private Investments
When assessing performance at the aggregate private portfolio and sub-component level, investors should take the long view. In this publication, we review how long funds take to settle into their ultimate quartile ranking and highlight our framework for benchmarking a portfolio of private investments.
May 2018
Trade Finance: An Expanding Opportunity for Institutional Investors
While trade finance is among the oldest forms of institutionalized credit, it has only recently become an accessible market for most institutional investors. Providing high liquidity, good return premiums over cash, and a predictable risk profile, it can play a valuable role in portfolio strategy. However, as a fairly new option for most investors, its […]
May 2018
Is Cash Still Trash?
Not in the United States. As short rates have increased and the yield curve has flattened, US T-bills offer more appeal than they have in some time (and short-dated Treasuries even more so).
May 2018
Venture Capital and Impact Investing: Blurring Boundaries Mean New Opportunities
Impact investing – allocations that aim for social and/or environmental change or to solve a problem in the world – has historically stood apart from “traditional,” financial-return driven investing. But increasingly in several asset classes, including venture capital, an exciting convergence of variables is blurring the boundaries, perhaps turning this old distinction on its head. […]
May 2018