An informative guide to selecting and evaluating external investment professionals This book-one of the very few of its kind-is an invaluable aid to trustees of pension plans, endowments, and trusts who seek to chart and navigate courses for governing and overseeing the investment of the trillions of dollars under their care. It covers many aspects of this essential endeavor, including return measures, fixed income and duration, manager searches, committee meetings, and much more. G. Timothy Haight (Atherton, CA) is President of Menlo College in Silicon Valley. Stephen O. Morrell, PhD (Coral Springs, FL) is Professor at Andreas School of Business of Barry University. Glenn Ross (Baltimore, MD) is a Managing Director and cofounder of Archstone Portfolio Solutions.
An informative guide to selecting and evaluating external investment professionals This book-one of the very few of its kind-is an invaluable aid to trustees of pension plans, endowments, and trusts who seek to chart and navigate courses for governing and overseeing the investment of the trillions of dollars under their care. It covers many aspects of this essential endeavor, including return measures, fixed income and duration, manager searches, committee meetings, and much more. G. Timothy Haight (Atherton, CA) is President of Menlo College in Silicon Valley. Stephen O. Morrell, PhD (Coral Springs, FL) is Professor at Andreas School of Business of Barry University. Glenn Ross (Baltimore, MD) is a Managing Director and cofounder of Archstone Portfolio Solutions.
Praise for Investment Manager Analysis "This is a book that should have been written years ago. It provides a practical, thorough, and completely objective method to analyze and select an investment manager. It takes the mystery (and the consultants) out of the equation. Without question, this book belongs on every Plan Sponsor's desk." —Dave Davenport, Assistant Treasurer, Lord Corporation, author of The Equity Manager Search "An insightful compendium of the issues that challenge those responsible for hiring and firing investment managers. Frank Travers does a good job of taking complicated analytical tools and methodologies and explaining them in a simple, yet practical manner. Anyone responsible for conducting investment manager due diligence should have a copy on their bookshelf." —Leon G. Cooperman, Chairman and CEO, Omega Advisors, Inc. "Investment Manager Analysis provides a good overview of the important areas that purchasers of institutional investment management services need to consider. It is a good instructional guide, from which search policies and procedures can be developed, as well as a handy reference guide." —David Spaulding, President, The Spaulding Group, Inc. "This book is the definitive work on the investment manager selection process. It is comprehensive in scope and well organized for both the layman and the professional. It should be required reading for any organization or individual seeking talent to manage their assets." —Scott Johnston, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer, Sterling Johnston Capital Management, LP "Investment Manager Analysis is a much-needed, comprehensive review of the manager selection process. While the industry is riddled with information about selecting individual stocks, comparatively little has been written on the important subject of manager selection for fund sponsors. This is a particularly useful guide for the less experienced practitioner and offers considerable value to the veteran decisionmaker as well." —Dennis J. Trittin, CFA, Portfolio Manager, Russell Investment Group
Manager selection is a critical step in implementing any investment program. Investors hire portfolio managers to act as their agents, and portfolio managers are then expected to perform to the best of their abilities and in the investors' best interests. Investors must practice due diligence when selecting portfolio managers. They need to not only identify skillful managers, but also determine the appropriate weights to assign to those managers. This book is designed to help investors improve their ability to select managers. Achieving this goal includes reviewing techniques for hiring active, indexed, and alternative managers; highlighting strategies for setting portfolio manager weights and monitoring current managers; and considering the value of quantitative and qualitative methods for successful manager selection.
In recent years the field of finance has exploded with innovation. New products, services and techniques abound. The risks of inflation, the volatility of interest rates, the deregulation of financial intermediaries and the unbundling of financial services have combined to present investment managers with challenges and opportunities far greater than in the past. For trustees and managers of pension, trust, endowment, and similar funds, the task of meeting the challenges and exploiting the opportunities is much more difficult. These fiduciaries must measure their investment decisions against constrained interpretations of a legal standard--the prudent man rule--that have caused it to lag far behind changes in investment theory and the marketplace. Drawing on financial history, a major opinion survey of institutional investors, and comprehensive reviews of the law and of the lessons of modern portfolio theory for prudence, this book presents a powerful case that the prudent man rule as elaborated in legal treatises and much of the case law would virtually compel a fiduciary to act imprudently in terms of financial theory and marketplace reality. In proposing a modern paradigm of investment prudence, the book uses illustrations drawn from such traditionally suspect categories of investment fiduciaries as securities lending, real estate, venture capital, options and futures and repurchaser agreements. An unusual examination of the interaction of the worlds of law and finance, this work will be of interest to fiduciaries who are subject to some from of prudent man rule and all others, including judges, lawyers and investment managers, who are called upon to interpret and apply that legal standard.
Just how successful is that investment? Measuring portfolio performance requires evaluation (measuring portfolio results against benchmarks) and attribution (determining individual results of the portfolio's parts), In this book, a professor and an asset manager show readers how to use theories, applications, and real data to understand these tools. Unlike others, Fischer and Wermers teach readers how to pick the theories and applications that fit their specific needs. With material inspired by the recent financial crisis, Fischer and Wermers bring new clarity to defining investment success. - Gives readers the theories and the empirical tools to handle their own data - Features practice problems formerly from the CFA Program curriculum.
This book covers each step in the asset allocation process, addressing as many of the relevant questions as possible along the way. How can we formulate expectations about long-term returns? How relevant are valuations? What are the challenges to optimizing the portfolio? Can factor investing add value and, if so, how can it be implemented? Which are the key performance drivers for each asset class, and what determines how they are correlated? How can we apply insights about the business cycle to tactical asset allocation? The book is aimed at finance professionals and others looking for a coherent framework for decision-making in asset allocation, both at the strategic and tactical level. It stresses analysis rather than pre-conceived ideas about investments, and it draws on both empirical research and practical experience to give the reader as strong a background as possible.
Build an agile, responsive portfolio with a new approach to global asset allocation Adaptive Asset Allocation is a no-nonsense how-to guide for dynamic portfolio management. Written by the team behind Gestaltu.com, this book walks you through a uniquely objective and unbiased investment philosophy and provides clear guidelines for execution. From foundational concepts and timing to forecasting and portfolio optimization, this book shares insightful perspective on portfolio adaptation that can improve any investment strategy. Accessible explanations of both classical and contemporary research support the methodologies presented, bolstered by the authors' own capstone case study showing the direct impact of this approach on the individual investor. Financial advisors are competing in an increasingly commoditized environment, with the added burden of two substantial bear markets in the last 15 years. This book presents a framework that addresses the major challenges both advisors and investors face, emphasizing the importance of an agile, globally-diversified portfolio. Drill down to the most important concepts in wealth management Optimize portfolio performance with careful timing of savings and withdrawals Forecast returns 80% more accurately than assuming long-term averages Adopt an investment framework for stability, growth, and maximum income An optimized portfolio must be structured in a way that allows quick response to changes in asset class risks and relationships, and the flexibility to continually adapt to market changes. To execute such an ambitious strategy, it is essential to have a strong grasp of foundational wealth management concepts, a reliable system of forecasting, and a clear understanding of the merits of individual investment methods. Adaptive Asset Allocation provides critical background information alongside a streamlined framework for improving portfolio performance.
Arms investors with powerful new tools for measuring and managing the risks associated with the various illiquid asset classes With risk-free interest rates and risk premiums at record lows, many investors are turning to illiquid assets, such as real estate, private equity, infrastructure and timber, in search of superior returns and greater portfolio diversity. But as many analysts, investors and wealth managers are discovering, such investments bring with them a unique set of risks that cannot be measured by standard asset allocation models. Written by a dream team of globally renowned experts in the field, this book provides a clear, accessible overview of illiquid fund investments, focusing on what the main risks of these asset classes are and how to measure those risks in today's regulatory environment. Provides solutions for institutional investors in need of guidance in today's regulatory environment Offers detailed descriptions of risk measurement in illiquid asset classes, illustrated with real life case studies Helps you to develop reliable risk management tools while complying with the regulations designed to contain the individual and systemic risks arising from illiquid investments Features real-life case studies that capture an array of risk management scenarios you are likely to encounter
