CFA Society New York

The 3rd Annual Endowment and Foundation Chief Investment Officer Roundtable will feature a high-level discussion on the implications of current market conditions and within this context, analyze trends in best practices in investment strategy, risk management and market engagement. As Endowments and Foundations are faced with a challenging return environment and higher market volatility, the outlook for future returns seems muted when compared to their impressive record of double digit growth generated in the recent past. Most are responding to the lack of readily evident market opportunities by investing in longer-term opportunities such as alternatives, exploring private markets and turning to strategic partners. As Endowments and Foundations seek to take a more hands-on approach to investment management and increase the complexity of their portfolios by moving into new markets, their perspectives and approach towards these goals offer a valuable lesson for investors.

Multiemployer Pension plans, which are operated by groups of companies together with officials of a union that represents their workers, oversee roughly $500 billion in assets under management. Such plans are common in sectors like the building trades, where the workers move from job to job, taking their benefits with them. The trucking, retail and mining industries also have many multiemployer plans. ‎The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation estimates that about 10 million Americans are earning or receiving pensions from the roughly 1,400 multiemployer defined benefit pension plans in the US.‎ While the financial crisis greatly impacted the funded status of these plans, they have recovered significantly since 2009. ‎The conference will explore the perspectives of senior Multiemployer Pension investment professionals and how they are managing not only the volatile equity markets, but also the low interest rate environment.