The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 included substantial relief funds for the most troubled US multiemployer pension plans through its Special Financial Assistance (SFA) program. This paper looks at how multiemployer plans have a unique opportunity to improve their solvency through 2051 and beyond by optimizing how they invest both SFA relief funds and their existing plan assets.
Most families of significant wealth inevitably grapple with intergenerational wealth transitions. While shifting the responsibility for a family’s long-term financial health can be a challenging endeavor, generational transfers are also an opportunity for families to take a fresh look at their financial goals. With this in mind, we advocate a three-part framework for families seeking to integrate members of the next generation into the wealth management process, which focuses on engagement, education, and empowerment.
Investment governance plays a critical role in the ability of families with substantial wealth to define their financial objectives and formulate a strategy for a diversified portfolio. This paper provides an overview of investment governance that families can use in the development of their own investment decision-making framework.
As next gen investors and principal wealth owners think about meeting both near- and long-term wealth management challenges, they should consider three core pillars of building a lasting family legacy: shared values, strong wealth governance, and a clear, long-term investment policy.
In the second piece of our two-part series on philanthropy and impact investing, we take a closer look at portfolio implementation best practices for families. In doing so, we outline how families may wish to identify opportunities within sustainable and impact investing (SII) themes. We discuss the broad opportunity set, how to construct and then actively manage an investment portfolio of these strategies, and why families are well-positioned to deploy capital in this space.
In engaging with our family clients around the world, we are often asked for views on how to think about philanthropy versus impact investing and how to best implement a socially and/or environmentally impactful investment strategy. Common themes transcend these topics, but each is distinct, and we will outline our perspective in a two-part series. In this first piece, we discuss some of the motivations behind philanthropy and we review how philanthropy relates to impact investing.
Our third annual Endowment Radar Study reflects the growing role of the endowment in the private college and university business model. This year saw notable growth in the endowment’s support of the budget and its contribution to balance sheet health.
In just the last five years, total US institutional assets under management by Outsourced Chief Investment Officers has continued to grow steadily, and is projected to reach nearly $2 trillion in 2021.
The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was signed into law on March 11, 2021, and included a variety of plan sponsor–friendly changes to single-employer and multiemployer pension plans, but no real help for public sector plans. ARPA may change the future landscape of US pension plans, which may prompt plan sponsors to modify their investment strategies to achieve plan objectives. Its impact will vary greatly, both by plan type and individual plan circumstances.
While colleges and universities have faced several financial fissures due to the disruptions of COVID-19, their endowments have been a source of financial stability. Four key financial indicators tell this story: operating margins were compressed, tuition discounts grew, institutions borrowed more debt, and endowment spending was consistent. In this note, we review these financial pressures and the endowment implications that emerged in Cambridge Associates’ second annual Endowment Radar Study of private college and university finances.