Anne-Marie Fink explains why SWIB avoids hedging out short-term residual directional beta in hedge fund portfolios.
Insight
Fink: Competence drives workplace happiness, not the other way around
“To create a successful and happy workforce, you actually need to be good at your job, and then the happiness follows, or to be successful in whatever endeavor you're going after, rather than let's make everybody happy, and then they'll be good at what they're …”
Insight
Fink: Delegated investment authority gives SWIB a major partnering edge
“So we have delegated authority, which is great because it means we can move fast. We can speak for investments. We don't have to say, well, we'd like to invest, but talk to us in a month after we've talked to our investment committee and we'll let you know. So…”
Insight
Fink: Capping pension upside while absorbing downside mathematically guarantees underperformance
“When Detroit went bankrupt, what was that, five, seven years ago, You looked at the plan and the expected rate of return was eight percent, and any year that they performed higher than eight percent, they paid it out. So by definition, you're never going to ge…”
Disclosure
SWIB reduced portfolio leverage to 12% amid an inverted yield curve
“We're currently at about 12% leverage, so we have 112% invested for every dollar that we have in assets, and that used to be higher when the yield curve was not inverted. It makes much more sense to do this when the yield curve is more normal, so we used to ha…”
Opinion
Fink: Lower mid-market private equity offers better return opportunities than mega-caps
“We actually are pretty big believers in lower mid-market funds, but we think that the opportunities in lower mid-market, if you've got the skill to really go in and assess people, we think the opportunities for returns are better.”
Opinion
Fink: Current private equity liquidity is slightly subnormal, not vastly abnormal
“The 2021 liquidity was unusual. And the 2023, 20 24 liquidity is probably less than normal, but not Vastly abnormal. It just feels vastly abnormal because 21 was so amazing.”