Investing in Racial Equity: A Primer for University & College Endowments
Commonfund and Commonfund Institute are very happy to contribute to the new report from Intentional Endowments Network (IEN), “Investing in Racial Equity: A Primer for University & College...
Diversity and Inclusion: Ways to Make a Change
Across the United States, citizens are gathering to protest the unjust deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery; each of these individuals fell victim to police brutality and racial...
Balancing Risk and Return
Risk surrounds us, and for investment fiduciaries it is inescapable if meaningful real returns are to be sought. While risk and return constitute the axes upon which investment portfolios are built,...
In Remembrance
The senseless killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and most recently, George Floyd have once again brought the scourge of racism to the forefront of our nation’s conscience. For many Americans,...
Seven Ways to Diversify Your Private Equity Portfolio
A strong private capital program requires consistent, diversified investing over time. It is also necessary to have— or obtain externally— resources for research and due diligence before you invest;...
How to Select a Private Equity Manager
Are you are considering investing directly with a private equity manager? If you opt to go direct, you will be tasked with selecting, managing and disposing the assets entirely on your own. It may be...
Integrating ESG into Private Equity Portfolios
Many investors today, particularly nonprofits, are seeking to align their investment portfolio with the mission of their organization. Commonfund is a signatory to the PRI and as part of our...
Commonfund Forum Goes Global
During the week of October 14th, 2019 Commonfund Institute hosted our first Forum outside of the United States in Tokyo, Japan. We were honored to be joined by many leading Japanese institutional...
Three Considerations for Your Private Equity Structure
This is the third blog in a private capital series based on our guide, “Succeed in Private Capital Investing”. You can see the previous blog here. Having determined the size of your private capital...
Building a Private Equity Allocation
Building a private capital allocation that makes a difference to your portfolio takes time and dedication. The first step is deciding to make a meaningful allocation to private capital. Then, to...
Taking a Fresh Look at Spending Models
Investors have limited control over the returns their portfolios generate. They have more control over their spending. That doesn’t make it easy. Compared to some earlier periods, volatility in the...
A sit-down with Richard Fisher
As a follow-on to the Commonfund Forum 2019 panel discussion, The Global Economy and the Return of Risk, Richard Fisher, former President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, further...
Private Market Investing vs Public Market Investing, What’s the Big Difference?
The first step of successful private market investing is to learn what private capital is, what its risks and rewards are, and how it differs from public market investing. Private capital provides...
Commonfund Forum 2019 Attendee Statistics [Infographic]
Commonfund recently hosted its 21st annual Commonfund Forum in Orlando, Florida. The event brought together institutional investors to engage in a two-day conference to explore cyclical trends and...
Chart of the Month | One Reason Investors Are Feeling Uneasy
Investors of all types, including those that represent institutions, are clearly feeling more uneasy than they have in years. It isn’t just the spike in stock market volatility that buffeted...
5 Steps to Success in Private Capital Investing
Investors participate in private equity markets for two main reasons: to pursue increased investment return and to add portfolio diversification. Even well-informed investors who are experienced in...
Identifying an “E” Factor
Over the past year the Commonfund investment teams have undertaken research to identify and isolate a new factor associated with the environmental sustainability of a stock (or a portfolio of...
A Cost-Effective Approach to Hedge Fund Allocations: Part 2
Let’s start with a quick recap of Part 1 of this story, which can be boiled down to three main points: Investors often spend too much for market beta, paying “2 and 20” for hedge funds that deliver...
A Cost-Effective Approach to Hedge Fund Allocations: Part 1
At the risk of beating a dead horse, hedge funds are not an asset class. This is especially true in the way in which Commonfund selects and constructs its hedge fund portfolios: focusing...
Equity Portfolio Construction – Through a Risk Factor Lens
At Commonfund, we aim to build multi-manager, active risk equity portfolios with a clear objective of consistent outperformance versus passive policy benchmarks. Our approach is to take intentional...
How Much Beta is in Your Equity Portfolio?
Leveling the Field in the “Tug of War” Between Active and Passive… Active Equity Manager Universal Objective: Outperform the Passive Alternative It’s undeniable that every active equity manager’s...
Commonfund Forum 2017 Attendee Statistics [Infographic]
We recently hosted our 19th annual Commonfund Forum in San Antonio Texas. The event brought together institutional investors to engage in a three-day conference to explore cyclical trends and...
Long-Term Trends for Long-Term Investors
Nonprofit institutions have the distinct advantage of having the longest time horizon of any investors – often perpetuity. This affords an opportunity to consider investments based on secular trends...
What do the Cable Television and Hedge Fund Industries Have in Common?
These industries may seem an odd pairing, but both are in the midst of a disruption-led, industry-wide rationalization process. The two industries share in common a historically evolved “bundling”...
Private Credit Opportunities – Direct Lending to U.S. Middle Market Companies
Much has been made of the challenges endowment, foundation and nonprofit investors face in achieving a CPI+ five percent return target. One way to improve the probability of attaining this goal is to...
A False Sense of Diversification?
As we have undergone the process of re-underwriting all of Commonfund’s equity managers and funds over the last 6 months, we have tackled anew the age old question of how many funds does one...
The Billion Dollar Dilemma - What is the Right Governance Model for your Institution?
Finding the right investment governance model for your institution isn’t about size. In the hyper-competitive world of endowment management, something curious happens when the word used to describe...
Bridging the Gap: Carbon and Fiduciary Responsibility
Most institutional investor discussions and actions regarding global warming have been at two ends of the spectrum: either divest from fossil fuels entirely or remain fully invested. A better...
Six Key Questions To Ask OCIO Providers
“Outsourced CIO” (or OCIO) is a term that might not be familiar to many. In the past it has been defined as a traditional consulting model in which the process of interviewing potential investment...
The Curious Case of Risk Exposures in Diversified Portfolios
Our research at Commonfund has found that a 70/30 stock/bond portfolio has north of 99 percent of its risk, as measured by standard deviation, allocated to equities. Thus, portfolio risk typically...
Defining Risk For Your Organization
Merriam-Webster’s defines risk as the “possibility of loss or injury.” The financial profession — borrowing from Modern Portfolio Theory — uses the standard deviation of a portfolio’s returns to...
ESG: What is it?
Generally speaking, Environmental Social and Governance, or ESG for short, is used to describe a group of characteristics that can have a material impact on the long-term success of a company and,...
Straight Talk About Private Equity
For reasons unknown, many investors assume that private equity may have lost its edge as a key allocation for their portfolios. This perception, however, may not align with reality. By taking a...
Chart of the Month | U.S. Jobs Machine Keeps Cranking