Since the 1990’s Commonfund has managed pension assets affiliated with U.S. and (later) Canadian nonprofit organizations, including hospitals, colleges and universities. Recently we have broadened our plan sponsor universe beyond this nonprofit community to include corporate and public defined benefit plans.
With plan sponsors we work closely with investment staff and their consultants to construct and implement alternative investment portfolios incorporating strategies and assets classes such as:
- Global Venture Capital
- U.S. Private Equity
- Global (ex. U.S.) Private Equity
- Natural Resources
- Hedge Funds
- Commodities
- Distressed Investing
Our approach is that of an investment manager either for a single investment program or to implement a broadly diversified alternatives portfolio, complementing the role of your investment consultant and staff as the overseer of your entire portfolio. We provide commingled funds for all programs and offer separate accounts to eligible investors for a range of directional, relative value and diversified hedge fund strategies as well as commodity investments.
Fundamental to our approach to alternative investing is education and on-going due diligence and risk management. We recognize that among the greatest challenges faced by plan sponsors is the effective and efficient matching of liability streams and, for some, the uncertainty of plan funding. And, therefore, it is critical that alternative investment programs are effectively integrated with traditional long-only equity and fixed income portfolios to ensure that the portfolio in aggregate is capable of providing target returns and liquidity within your specific risk tolerances.