Research Publications Archive

Emerging Markets Equity Manager Performance: 2018

More than 63% of active emerging markets equity managers underperformed the MSCI Emerging Markets Index gross of fees in 2018, marking the third consecutive year of underperformance. This chart book is our annual summary of the absolute and relative performance of managers that report to our database. This is a companion piece to the US, global ex US, and global equity manager performance chart books already published.

Brexit’s Crescendo and UK Investors: Tuning Out the Noise

Though developments and headlines associated with the UK’s Article 50 negotiations with the EU to exit the trading bloc have been fitful, their impact thus far on the underlying fundamentals of the UK economy and sterling-denominated assets, particularly UK equities, has been moderate. Because Brexit is a political process with two-way tail risks, it warrants close monitoring but is not a good foundation for a tactical investment position By the same token, UK investors should avoid factoring in expectations of specific potential Brexit outcomes into strategic decisions regarding currency exposures.

The Case for Dedicated China Exposure

While we have advised a gradual approach to investing in China, today we believe that investors should take a systematic and comprehensive approach, overweighting Chinese assets relative to their index weights. Looking past the uncertainty and negativity, investors will find a large investment opportunity set, a robust universe of public and private managers, and appealing public equity valuations.

Annual Review of Endowments: Fiscal Year 2018

This report summarizes returns, asset allocation, and related trends for 278 endowed institutions. Included are exhibits on asset class returns, performance attribution, risk analytics, policy portfolio benchmarking, and uncalled capital commitments. The analysis is broken down by size of assets under management and by institution type. The report also contains sections on investment manager structures, payout from the long-term investment portfolio, and investment office staffing and governance. Finally, accompanying this year’s report are videos which draw your attention to some of the report highlights and let you hear directly from the authors.

Revving Pension Plans’ Funding Engines

Many corporate defined benefit plans experienced significant funded status gains in recent years. Recent capital markets volatility, however, has set many plans a few steps back, re-focusing plan sponsors on both protecting long-term funded status gains and closing the asset-liability deficit. Given increased volatility in global equity markets, relatively high valuations in many market segments, and the late stages of the economic and credit cycles, optimizing the plan’s growth engine is more critical, and challenging, than ever. This publication provides a framework for how to do so in the context of the evolving market environment.

Global Equity Manager Performance: 2018

In 2018, 52% of active global managers underperformed the MSCI World Index gross of fees, with the median manager underperforming by 20 basis points. This marked a reversal from active managers’ strong outperformance in 2017. This is a companion piece to the US and global ex US equity manager performance chart books already published.