Investing in revenue development and fundraising while simultaneously pursuing goals for asset growth is a balancing act. This paper outlines the various funding mechanisms public universities can use to pay for development efforts, and the implications they have on the investment portfolio and enterprise as a whole.
Setting an appropriate spending policy is an important part of effective endowment management, as an institution’s spending policy serves as a bridge that links the long-term investment portfolio and the enterprise. The data and analysis in this report cover a variety of spending topics including spending rule types, the endowment’s support of operations, and effective spending rates. This year’s report draws on a supplemental study Cambridge Associates conducted in March 2017 to dive deeper into the topics of spending policy implementation and factors that may lead to policy changes.
In this Edition: Investment advisors and regulators step up focus on cybersecurity; A bit of paperwork helps advisors avoid inadvertent custody of client assets; Fiduciary Rule’s future starting to come into better focus; Puerto Rican bond holders may face long wait as island works through Title III proceedings; Merger & acquisition activity slows despite anticipated soft regulatory touch.
Recent policy proposals assume endowments can do more to reduce their reliance on student revenue, and thus the cost of a college education. Our analysis shows that while well intentioned, these proposals will affect endowment and organizational stability and intergenerational equity.
Our February edition is traditionally a look at the year ahead, and with a new US administration looking to roll back many of the regulations passed in recent years, there’s plenty to cover. We discuss several areas to watch including banks, tax reform, mutual funds, hedge funds, and private equity. In this edition we also cover recent developments that may create more challenges for active managers—the US Department of Labor’s Fiduciary Rule and a spate of lawsuits against 401(k) and 403(b) plan sponsors.
In this Edition: Mutual fund liquidity back in the spotlight; New rules and regulations under consideration by several regulatory bodies; Regulators use FCPA to follow the money; Debt financing rules sharpen.
Institutions understandably have an interest in the investment results of peers, but a hyper-focus on peer comparisons can be distracting, if not destructive, to effective governance. In this report, we review what can be learned from peer data, where the pitfalls lie, and some examples of how to approach analyzing peer data.
ETFs offer convenient and, in many cases, economical exposure to a variety of asset classes and investment strategies. However, in some cases investors unaccustomed to ETFs have been negatively surprised by the trading missteps that are possible when transacting these products. In this report, we seek to help investors understand some of the key differences between ETFs and traditional mutual funds by reviewing their mechanics, highlighting sources of tracking error, outlining fee and tax considerations, clarifying market impact, offering a set of key decision points for choosing between an ETF and a mutual fund, and discussing best practices for trading ETFs.
In this Edition: New rules could benefit asset-backed securities investments; “Brexit” has potential to create additional oversight challenges and requirements; Burgeoning financial technology industry creates opportunity, need for oversight; Don’t forget! Money market reform is drawing near.
When endowment funds slip “underwater,” institutions must evaluate the tradeoff between distributing anticipated budget support and restoring the endowment to its original value.