How can we help you?
As fiduciaries, we make recommendations based on your unique circumstances, investment risk, and objectives. Our firm follows the principles of portfolio diversification, long-term investing horizon, quality selection, and risk-adjusted-performance. We offer you a wide range of investment solutions, including low-cost index funds, smart beta ETFs, mutual funds and individual investments in stocks and bonds. We evaluate other external managers and investment funds based on a proprietary set of criteria. When scanning for investment ideas, our firm conducts deep-dive due diligence, investment manager interviews, backtesting and risk modeling.
Managing growth
One of the most common
reasons why clients seek our services is to maintain their growing asset base. While fast growth is a good problem, it brings more responsibilities and higher investment and operational risk. For instance, one of our key clients increased its asset base by 400% within 12 months. In that short period, we created an infrastructure to integrate new incoming accounts into the existing portfolio structure. While at the same time, we worked on eliminating operational deficiencies and establishing an investment committee.
Asset complexity and customization
Organizations have unique investment goals and appetite for risk. We regularly observe customer portfolios with significant investment concentration and the need for diversification. Additionally, we see that many organizations have specific tax or liquidity constraints that can hinder their investment decisions. There is also a growing need for socially responsible and faith-based investing. An outside CIOs can help clients efficiently navigate through the ever-growing complexity of customized investments and financial decisions.
Asset Liability management
As of December 31, 2017, the average endowment surveyed by NACUBO-Commondund
Study has generated a 10-year return of +4.6%. This return is substantially lower than their long-term target rate of 7%, which is necessary to support spending and operational cost. For a $10m foundation, this gap could result in a $3.9m asset shortfall in just ten years and over $14m deficit in 20-years.
Real-time oversight
Investment portfolios need real-time management. Financial markets are risky and often move very fast. Our customers know that their complex portfolios require continuous supervision from experts who can monitor investment risks and take advantage of tactical opportunities.
Performance pressure
The rise of ETFs and low-cost index investing created enormous pressure on organizations to improve their returns. Our team of experts can establish a dynamic process for evaluating external managers and passive investment strategies. We are a firm believer in risk-adjusted-performance. Therefore we continuously scan the investment universe for managers with a distinguished history of achieving risk-adjusted returns and recommend them to our clients.
Risk management
Identifying and understanding the risks in our clients’ portfolios is a critical element in our investment management process. A robust risk and trading system can make a huge difference in a volatile market environment. As OCIO, we can implement ongoing risk management using daily monitoring, hedge strategies, portfolio stress testing, and risk modeling.
Free up internal resources
Our clients often rely on an investment committee and small internal staff to operate and manage their assets. Hiring a full-time portfolio manager can be a lengthy, challenging, and often costly process. By engaging an external CIO, our clients can free up their already stretched internal resources and cost-effectively focus on their core services.
Accelerated investment process
In a dynamic market environment, many of our clients benefit massively from an accelerated investment process. Our OCIO service helps our clients make faster strategic and tactical investment decisions. We also assist in the timely implementation of portfolio infrastructure and operational tasks.
Fiduciary advice
Our clients highly appreciate the value of fiduciary advice aligned with their specific goals, needs, and objectives. As a fiduciary OCIO, we must provide advice, investment management, and guidance in our clients’ best interests.
Open architecture
An outsourced CIO can implement an open architecture investment portfolio to allow for expanded investment options in all asset classes and categories. The open structure can lower costs and provide diversification. With our ongoing investment due-diligence process, our customers can choose from a broad pool of investment options including index funds, factor-based ETFs, and top-ranked portfolio managers.
Cost control
As OCIO, we can help clients reduce their overall investment management and administration cost. We often see clients locked-in expensive investment management agreements or using high-cost mutual funds and fee-loaded strategies with lackluster performance. Our fiduciary client commitment allows us to evaluate a wide range of investment strategies and recommend those with lower cost and higher risk-adjusted returns.
