Doug Phillips, Chief Investment Officer of the University of Rochester Endowment, describes the diligence timeline for hiring new external investment managers.
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“So it's not as if we find a firm and six months later they're in the portfolio. It takes us about a year or two to decide whether we're going to be moving ahead.”
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More from Doug Phillips
Insight
Adjusting managers or strategy annually is a fool's errand for endowments
“Because as a long-term investor, you know, if you're doing this every year or quarter or something, I think you're on a fool's errand.”
Doug PhillipsFeb 24, 2020▶ 12:15Doug Phillips – Middle of the Fairway at the University of Rochester (Capital Allocators, EP.123)
Opinion
Phillips finds no evidence that performance pay improves endowment investment teams
“I do think that there has been no proof that I've ever seen that the investment team, some folks say, well, the investment team should be aligned with performance. So there should be performance compensation and deferred bonuses and carried interest and sort o…”
Doug PhillipsFeb 24, 2020▶ 12:49Doug Phillips – Middle of the Fairway at the University of Rochester (Capital Allocators, EP.123)
Disclosure
Rochester's endowment avoids large buyout funds and household-name hedge funds
“We tend not to invest with large firms just at the outset. No bad feelings about any of the large buyout funds. For example, we don't have any of those. We tend not to be in the asset gathering mutual fund Or the larger funds, the hedge funds that are more hou…”
Doug PhillipsFeb 24, 2020▶ 23:10Doug Phillips – Middle of the Fairway at the University of Rochester (Capital Allocators, EP.123)
Insight
Long/short funds should not generate alpha against long-only benchmarks in bull markets
“One of the things we don't expect our long, short managers to do is to generate alpha Against our long equity benchmark in a rising market. That would mean that they're pushing it too hard on the long side.”
Doug PhillipsFeb 24, 2020▶ 41:24Doug Phillips – Middle of the Fairway at the University of Rochester (Capital Allocators, EP.123)
Opinion
Venture returns depend entirely on access to a handful of elite firms
“That's all that matters. If you don't have access to the best firms, Either create a roster of sort of up and coming firms and hope that a bunch of them do well, but our view in the office is that there are probably only a handful of firms that can operate ven…”
Doug PhillipsFeb 24, 2020▶ 51:20Doug Phillips – Middle of the Fairway at the University of Rochester (Capital Allocators, EP.123)
Insight
Up to 80% of university endowment growth stems from new capital
“Growth of endowments, educational endowments in this country at private colleges and universities is not so much related to investment performance, but it's related to compounding of new money. And David Swenson has pointed this out in one of his books, but it…”
Doug PhillipsFeb 24, 2020▶ 7:49Doug Phillips – Middle of the Fairway at the University of Rochester (Capital Allocators, EP.123)
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