Endowment Performance
Portfolio Strategy, Value
Seeking Alpha Analyst Since 2007
Larry Swedroe is head of financial and economic research office for Buckingham Wealth Partners, a Registered Investment Advisor firm in St. Louis, Mo.. Previously, Larry was vice chairman of Prudential Home Mortgage. Larry holds an MBA in finance and investment from NYU, and a bachelor’s degree in finance from Baruch College. To help inform investors about the passive investment approach, he was among the first authors to publish a book that explained passive investing in layman’s terms — The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You'll Ever Need (1998 and 2005). He has authored seven more books: What Wall Street Doesn't Want You to Know (2001), Rational Investing in Irrational Times (2002), The Successful Investor Today (2003), Wise Investing Made Simple (2007), Wise Investing Made Simpler (2010), The Quest for Alpha (2011), and Think, Act, and Invest Like Warren Buffett (2012). He also co-authored eight books: The Only Guide to a Winning Bond Strategy You’ll Ever Need (2006, with Joe Hempen), The Only Guide to Alternative Investments You’ll Ever Need (2008, with Jared Kizer) and The Only Guide You’ll Ever Need for the Right Financial Plan (2010, with Tiya Lim and Kevin Grogan), Investment Mistakes Even Smart Investors Make (2011, with RC Balaban), The Incredible Shrinking Alpha (2015 and 2020 with Andrew Berkin) Reducing the Risk of Black Swans (2013 and 2018 with Kevin Grogan), Your Complete Guide to a Successful and Secure Retirement (2018 and 2020 with Kevin Grogan), and Your Essential Guide to Sustainable Investing (2022 with Sam Adams). He writes for AdvisorPerspectives.com, AlphaArchitect.com, and TheEvidenceBasedInvestor.com. You can follow him on Twitter (http://twitter.com/larryswedroe).
Summary
- Research On Endowments Shows That Despite Taking On More Risks In The Form Of Often Opaque And Illiquid Investments (Hedge Funds, VC) They Have Generally Underperformed Appropriate Risk-Adjusted Benchmarks.
Educational institutions hold hundreds of billions of dollars in endowment funds. The outstanding performance of the Yale endowment fund, managed by legendary investor David Swensen, led many endowments to try to replicate its performance by increasing their exposures to alternative investments such as private equity, private real estate and hedge funds. Today, the endowments of large educational institutions have allocations to these alternatives of almost 60 percent.
https://www.evidenceinvestor.com/index-funds-43-college-endowments-0/
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