Investment Planning

2023 Outlook: Portfolio Wide

We expect most investors should maintain equity allocations in line with policy targets. Consistent with this idea, we believe investors with portfolios that are more diversified across risk exposures will tend to fare better than investors holding more correlated investments.

Solvency Beyond Relief: Unlocking the Full Potential of SFA Program Assets

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.

Quantitative Tightening Raises the Risks for Markets

With inflation running at multi-decade highs, monetary policymakers are united in one of the most aggressive tightening campaigns in decades. Most central banks have already significantly increased policy rates this year, and some are unwinding their massive balance sheets, also known as quantitative tightening (QT). In this paper, we review what is known about the current state of central banks’ balance sheets and their operations, discuss some known uncertainties of QT’s impact on financial markets, and consider QT in the context of the current market environment.

Right-Sizing Private Investments for the Evolving Pension

Most defined benefit plans–including public, multi-employer, and even frozen corporate plans–can benefit from private investment (PI) strategies. Despite this, many plan sponsors still abruptly cut off PI commitments or do not optimize their usage as the plan matures. This paper explores how plan sponsors should utilize PI strategies within their toolkit and customize their composition over time to reflect a plan’s evolving goals.

Implementing a Sustainable and Impact Investing Strategy – A Family Perspective

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.

Unblurring the Boundary Between Philanthropy and Impact Investing for Families

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.

Healthcare System Investments: Play Defense Before Offense

The COVID-19 pandemic financially shocked healthcare system enterprises and investment portfolios, but those shocks were short lived and the recovery was swift. However, challenges still exist as revenue and expense pressures weigh upon healthcare margins in 2022, and many elements of delivering healthcare have changed the way hospitals plan and prepare for the future. To implement a successful long-term investment program, the investment playbook may call for building a solid defense before playing offense in the implementation of a long-term investment strategy.