Solution to Case on Yale Model - Investment Management Class

More recently, the overall weight of private equity in the Investment Office portfolio has been decreasing (from a target of 25% against the most recent number of 17%) as a consequence of Yale perceiving lack of specialization of several equity funds ("positioning themselves as asset managers") and because of the indiscipline and inexperience of several new market players. Albeit, Yale has not dismissed this asset class due to the historical success, the strong relationships developed with key managers, its know-how and experience on the private equity process and not to be perceived as a market-timer type of investor.

The Yale Endowment is known in the financial industry as a pioneer in using a combination of innovative asset allocation and active management to produce impressive long-term performance. In fact, the Endowment produced a 17.8% average annual return, net of fees, in the ten-year period ending June 30, 2007.1 This performance is particularly impressive given that, in recent years, the Endowment portfolio has carried less than a 40% weighting in equities. Instead, under the leadership of Chief Investment Officer Dave Swensen, the Yale Investments Office

“The Benefits of diversification are clear. Portfolio theory has played a crucial role in explaining the relationship between risk and return where more than one investment is held. It also enables us to identify optimal and efficient portfolios.”

This Fund is targeting the following annual return for Limited Partners; class A Shares will have a 5% per annum, plus a limited share of profits, on invested capital. Class B shares will have approximately 10% - 15% per annum. However, these anticipated returns (which is not a guarantee of performance) is based on good faith assumptions

5. - Please critically assess Buffett´s investment philosophy, and prepare to identify points where you agree and disagree with him.

Furthermore, HMC employed a compensation system that not only helped to attract and retain some of the most adept portfolio managers in the market, but also permitted to align the economic objectives of portfolio managers with those of the university. In other words, the structure and compensation system of HMC was designed specifically to achieve its objectives and to maintain the real long-term value of Harvard’s endowment

Moreover, it deals with the immediate opening problem of the case: the market’s response to the PacifiCorp announcement. Finally, it should help to motivate a discussion of Buffett’s investment philosophy.

Discuss Buffett’s analysis of the junk bond failures of the 1980s.What is Buffett’s view of the role to be played by investment bankers?

Instead of relying solely on external management, they allocate 68% of their endowment to internal management and the remaining 32% to outside asset managers. In order to do this, HMC employed 38 investment professionals and 148 other employees whose jobs were solely to manage the $19 billion dollars in total assets, of which $15.1 billion were endowment funds. This management strategy generated expenses of around $93 million dollars per year (49 basis points), and produced a real return of 11.3%, after expenses. This method of investment costs about 19 more basis points than a passive strategy and about 51 basis points cheaper than a typical active investment strategy using 100% outside managers. Harvard University opted for this strategy because it is cheaper than a traditional active management strategy while still allowing them the ability to adjust their risks taken and expected returns in order to remain on the “efficient frontier” of what return was required to meet their internal institutional goals.

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.

1. What are the financial issues facing the Hewlett Foundation (HF)? In particular, is HF’s newly proposed asset allocation policy adequate to meet the foundation’s long-term spending goal of sustaining a long-term real (or inflation-adjusted) payout ratio of 5%, while preserving capital in real terms? Is it adequate to meet its short-term objective of maintaining consistent spending without sharp fluctuations?

Management and investors are often more interested in the return earned on the funds invested than in the

David Fletcher is a portfolio manager with many years of experience and success under his belt. He currently is a limited partner managing an Emerging Growth Fund for Jenkins Fletcher Partnership or JFP. The company was small when David started and consisted of a CEO, Paul Jenkins, CFO, 2 financial assistance, 4 research analyses, 1 research assistant and a receptionist. David first started with JFP he hired an Administrative Assistance, Whitney to help organize his calendar, contact companies and take messages, etc. Whitney proved to be capable and eager to learn. Under David’s guidance she received her MBA and

In 2005, the vice president, chief investment officer, and their investment team met in order to compose a new asset allocation policy for the foundation’s investment portfolio worth $6.4 billion. One of the proposal’s suggestion was to reduce the overall exposure of the investment portfolio to domestic public equities. The proposal would also increase the allocation to absolute return strategies (with an “equitizing” and “bondization” program) and to TIPS. The new policy would slightly increase the Sharpe ratio of the foundation’s portfolio. They also needed to make a decision on a recommendation to pledge about 5% of the total value of the portfolio to Sirius V, which was the latest fund that specialized in global distressed real estate investments.

Since 2008, Yale has increased its allocation toward private equity by almost 15%. Since 1973, Private equity investments have produced a 30% annualized return to the University.