How smaller endowments, shut out of razzle-dazzle investments, make do

Smaller endowments usually aren’t wealthy enough to land high-powered private equity or hedge fund investments. So, they turn elsewhere. Here is how an outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) partnership can help.

Key takeaways from the OCIO article

• For a long time, the most prestigious university endowments in the US have been rewarded by replicating the famed Yale model, benefiting from a mix of alternative assets that had high thresholds for entry.
• Investment professionals at smaller endowments under $1 billion have had to find other investment vehicles that can potentially deliver stellar returns.
• Arizona State University made the jump early on to outsourced CIO (OCIO) managers to rewrite their strategic asset allocations.
• After partnering with BlackRock in 2017, ASU CIO Jeffrey Mindlin said the partnership had a “material impact” on its endowment.