Cornerstone, An Investment Advisory Firm

The Vanguard Group, headquartered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, was founded in 1975 by John C. Bogle and has grown to become one of the largest investments companies in the world. As of June 30, 2016, the company has more than $3.5 trillion in global assets, with more than 20 million investors served by 14,000 employees, known as crew members. (Fast facts about Vanguard). Vanguard leverages its technology to support various types of investors through websites and apps for personal investors and web portals for its institutional investors, along with a modern phone center and operational area. One of the reasons that Vanguard has been able to be able to grow to this size, without greatly increasing the number of employees in recent years

The financial resources and the talented investment management team, provides unique investment strategies to over seven-hundred institutional investors. The management team caters to its high net-worth investors; offering them unique investment strategies not commonly found in a typical hedge fund.

The GuideStone Investment Small Cap Equity Funds ' objective, as stated on their website, seeks to provide long-term capital appreciation. The funds ' manager is Theodore R. Aronson, who has been in his position for fifteen years and started on August 1, 2001. There is a professional investment management team that consists of Snow Capital Management LP, AJO LP, Time Square Capital Management LLC, RBC Global Asset Management (U.S.) Inc., and Columbus Circle Investors. Their Small Cap Equity Fund has a minimum initial investment of $1,000 with minimum subsequent investments of $100 (Prospectus, guidestone.com). There are 460 holdings totaling $502 million total fund net assets for all share classes (Bloomberg Database). The following fees are assigned to the Small Cap Equity Fund and can be found on their Advisors ' Prospectus; online transaction fee: $49.95, acquired fund and expenses fee: 0.01%, management fee: .94% and there is a redemption fee applied if an agent, broker, or financial intermediary is used. There is no 12b-1 fee and the current expense ratio is 1.24%. The portfolio turnover rates for the past five years, from 2011-2015 are; 165%, 128%, 161%, 103%, and 74% (Prospectus, guiedstone.com). Some risks associated with the fund include less liquidity and increased volatility. Due to the fact that the fund invests primarily in small companies, it can have limited diversification, financial resources, and management experience. Foreign

CornerStone, as an investment advisory firm has all the necessary expertise and ability to dedicate all of its resources for the sole goal of maximizing Lumina’s endowment fund returns at the desired level of risk. Lumina has limited staff, so outsourcing investment responsibility allows them to focus on their core business. CornerStone is specialized in managing portfolios. They have more knowledge and access to sophisticated investment techniques and asset classes which small funds are deprived of. All of these factors coupled with CornerStone’s ability to act on investment decisions quickly, allow Lumina to benefit from reduced opportunity costs.

Set in the autumn of 2005, the case recounts the remarkable performance record of Value Trust, a mutual fund managed by William H. (Bill) Miller III at Legg Mason, Inc. The case describes the investment style of Miller, whose record with Value Trust had beaten the S&P 500 fourteen years in a row. The tasks for the student are to assess the performance of the fund, consider the sources of that success, and to decide on the sustainability of Miller’s performance. Consistent with the introductory nature of this case, the analysis requires no

Landry, Steven P[pic]; Wood, Larry M[pic]; Lindquist, Tim M[pic]. Strategic Finance[pic]78. 9[pic] (Mar 1997): 28-33.

Australian investment fund managers are highly active within the financial services sector. They handle high volumes of financial services on behalf of clients and firms in terms of aggregate assets under management and fund manager related trading activities on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2016), the size of the Australian investment management industry was in excess of $2,700 billion at 31 June 2016. As noted within the firm, the fund managers can adopt two competing fund strategies (Passive versus Active management). Active managers attempt to outperform a passive (or information less) market index through the accumulation and combination of price sensitive information (Gallagher & Looi, 2011, p. 206). This essay will examine and evaluate the arguments for and against active fund management and suggest a recommendation for the future direction of the firm.

Eventide has three funds, the Gilead Fund, the Healthcare and Life Sciences Fund, and the Multi-Asset Income Fund. The oldest fund, and therefore the subject of this paper, is the Gilead Fund (ETGLX) that began in July 2008 and is classified as a Mid-Cap Growth fund. Eventide’s objective is to outperform the standard benchmark index by engaging in an active management strategy. This strategy seems to be working well for the fund and has resulted in historically higher returns, 5.46% more since inception, than its benchmark, the Russell Midcap Growth Index. For the benchmark comparison chart, see Appendix A.

The wealth management Industry in Australia faces some major challenges that can hinder its growth in the future. Following the financial crisis, the industry has witnessed a sea change in terms of regulations, risk, increasing costs and the overall profitability of the industry. Investors are now far more demanding of their wealth managers. At a time when returns are low, assets have suffered losses and trust has been damaged, clients are far less willing to take the performance of wealth managers for granted.

Also edited by Greg N. Gregoriou ADVANCES IN RISK MANAGEMENT ASSET ALLOCATION AND INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENTS DIVERSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT OF MUTUAL FUNDS PERFORMANCE OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Experienced investors prefer Investment Companies that invest in their fund, therefore, is important that the “Investment Company” reinvests revenue in the fund.

Becoming major suppliers of funds in the financial market, mutual funds have become a very popular investment in recent years. Because of the diversity of investments, portfolio management’s expertise, and liquidity, mutual funds have grown rapidly over the past few years. One of the most popular group’s investing in mutual funds is people with self-driven retirement plans. This provides professionally handled money and pooled risk. There are more than 8,000 different mutual funds, with more than 88 million households owning shares of one or more.

Recent decades have witnessed a sharp increase in the institutionally managed savings, both in absolute terms and relative to household financial wealth (Davis and Steil, 2001; BIS, 2003). As a result, institutional ownership is an increasingly dominant feature of developed financial markets. Delegated portfolio management is a complex phenomenon which encompasses different segments. The mutual fund industry is predominantly characterized by middle-aged households investing individually in sometimes relatively standardized products. By contrast, pension funds are predominantly managed by corporate treasures, who often delegate the asset management to a third party, thus creating an additional layer of agency. As emphasized by Lakonishok et al. (1992b), corporate treasures often make recourse to investment counsellors for reasons which go beyond the optimization of asset allocation. Non-economic factors such as handholding and generally direct interaction are likely to play an important role in the pension fund industry, while funds allocation is more based on past performance in the mutual fund industry. Another important stylized fact of the delegated portfolio management industry is the poor performance of active management compared with a passive benchmark (Malkiel, 1995; Gruber, 1996).

With the global economy still struggling to fully recover from the devastating effects of a sustained recession, the role of private bankers and wealth managers has taken on a renewed sense of significance, as these professional money managers may be able to help individuals and families rebuild their shattered finances. A competent and qualified wealth manager is capable of developing a prudent investment strategy which is customized to best suit an individual client, transforming simple liquid assets into the engines driving continual prosperity. In order to maximize a client's return on investment (ROI) ratios, it is important for wealth managers to perform due diligence by poring through banking records, transaction histories, investment portfolios, and other factors of their financial health to determine the optimal money management and investment strategy for their particular needs. This process is integral to the overall philosophy of Asset-Liability Management (ALM), a term which "denotes the adaptation of the portfolio management process to handle the presence of various constraints relating to the liabilities of an investor" (Amenc, Martellini, Milhau & Ziemann, 2009), because recognizing a client's limitations is essential to helping them realize their potential. The most effective and efficient wealth managers are those who actively work with clients, fostering a personal understanding which strengthens the professional

Mandatory exercise to be handed in on November 22nd before 6:30pm: FunRide (instead of NewDesign).