The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 13 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Fenton: Only 20% of Manager Ideas Strictly Match Stated Criteria
“Maybe 20% of the ideas fit into this lovely definition of what you're looking for, but you can't limit yourself to that, or you won't be able to build a portfolio.”
Fenton: Normalizing Markets Challenge Thirty-Year Era of Illiquid Private Assets
“I think the environments are slowly returning to what I would call normal pre-financial crisis levels of investment scenario. There are obviously big adjustments happening as we speak, but I think there's an environment that will Have impacts on how institutio…”
Fenton: Allocator CIOs Must Not Dismiss First Pitches From Generalist Teams
“In the asset allocator space, especially when you're managing a generalist team, you can't just say no to the first pitch. You've got to ask questions about where they think this might go, and then let them keep going.”
Fenton: Comparing Specific Case Studies to Pitch Decks Reveals Manager Inconsistencies
“One of the ways to do that is by asking details about investment examples, and then flipping back to the generic slide deck, you can generally find inconsistencies, and you want a manager who's going to not feel like you just called them out and get really def…”
Fenton: Asset Managers Unnecessarily Avoid Consulting LPs on Succession Planning
“There seems to be a pretty deep-rooted reluctance on the part of managers to survey their best clients about what might be the best way forward. Just help me out here. The clients would love to help you because they don't want you to go in the wrong direction …”
Fenton: Leaders Should Provide Information Rather Than Direct Advice
“I think one thing that I've learned is that instead of giving advice, people respond better if you give them information, and so I guess that would be the thing that I would ever tell somebody is if someone comes to you for advice, don't tell them what to do. …”
Fenton: Helmsley Targets Five Percent Plus Inflation Return to Maintain Perpetuity
“Because as a foundation, our goal is to last into perpetuity. We have to pay out five percent. That's the IRS mandated payout. So our long-term performance objective is five percent plus inflation. Obviously, inflation had been a hot topic. Our baseline for th…”
Fenton: Helmsley's Manager Onboarding Process Takes One to Two Years
“New managers take a year or two to sort of emerge through our process. We don't have a need to make quick changes, and so we generally do a strategy review of, is there something we want to do that's come along that's new? Or something we don't have, want to i…”
Fenton Speaks Last in Team Meetings to Maintain Organic Idea Discussion
“I wanted to be the one who was talking at the end of a meeting instead of at the beginning of a meeting as much as possible so that the organic nature of idea discussion was maintained.”
Fenton: Helmsley Charitable Trust Allocates 40% of its Portfolio to Privates
“Inheriting a portfolio or building with RAS a portfolio that's 40% in privates, that's something I want to be really deliberate about.”
Fenton: Institutions Cannot Rapidly Shift Allocations When Heavy in Private Equity
“You can't flip a switch in this business And change your portfolio asset allocation when 30, 40, 50% is in private equity.”
Fenton: CIOs Should Develop Staff by Delegating Challenges Incrementally
“And I think that's another thing that's really important as a CIO is to give your team members the opportunities to grow professionally without dropping problems in their lap, being incremental about it.”
Fenton Reserves the First 90 Minutes of Office Days For Drop-Ins
“One thing I did is I blocked out the first hour and a half of every one of my days that are in the office. I called it office hours and made a priority not to schedule things that conflicted with that, if at all possible, so that anyone felt like if they had s…”