Cambridge Associates

assets, Cambridge Associates has been a provider of research and consulting services since the firm’s founding in 1973. Our relationship with this leading endowment is now research-oriented since the client has built a very talented investment office. The client leverages Cambridge Associates’ manager and capital markets research platform, peer comparative asset allocation data, attends our peer client conferences, and taps us for specialized studies and guidance on external managers.

investment approach, Cambridge Associates has developed asset allocation and investment policy guidelines, selected investment managers, and created quarterly performance reports. Since becoming a client in 2007, the portfolio and investment approach has been formalized to lay the groundwork in advance of a major capital campaign to grow this under $100 million endowment.

the outsourced investment office, advising the college across all asset classes. The college enjoys support from a strong investment committee but has a limited dedicated internal staff. After a detailed assessment of the “make” versus “buy” decision, the college decided to outsource to Cambridge Associates. The college has been a client since 1982 and converted from a traditional consulting relationship to an outsourced relationship in 2005.

portfolio including direct alternative investments, Cambridge Associates is working closely with the foundation to build and oversee direct hedge fund and private equity programs as well as to consult on traditional asset classes. In addition, with the support and collaboration of the foundation, Cambridge Associates is building deep mission-related investment research and consulting capabilities.

assets, Cambridge Associates and its mission-related investment (MRI) team is working closely with the foundation to develop a strategy for initiating and implementing an MRI program. Cambridge Associates’ MRI team has assisted the foundation in making informed decisions to achieve investment and programmatic goals, and helped design an MRI program focused on eight geographic regions. When implemented, 7.5% of the foundation’s portfolio will be aligned with its mission of economically empowering low-income communities. The foundation has been a client since 1999.

holding, Cambridge Associates worked closely with the family to analyze the risks of concentrated positions and assess the benefits of diversification. Cambridge Associates began by identifying the family’s long-term goals and then conducted and presented an asset allocation study. The asset allocation study involved extensive research and the creation of risk/return models based on different diversification scenarios to analyze potential implementation options. The foundation has decided to diversify half of its concentrated stock holding into a comprehensive portfolio, having developed a view that doing so will provide adequate volatility management, while allowing ample upside exposure given the continued important role of the single stock even after the sales.

since 1991, Cambridge Associates conducted a debt analysis. Although the university had issued debt in the past, a new management team at both the board and staff level sought reassurance that issuing debt was still preferable to drawing down invested cash. Cambridge Associates worked with the university's financial model to determine the size and timing of debt issuance that would continue to maintain healthy operating results and be acceptable to the university's various constituencies. Cambridge Associates assisted further by helping to search for and select a senior managing underwriter.

since 2002, Cambridge Associates selected a custodian bank suitable for the program’s specific characteristics. Cambridge Associates was responsible for all of the procedural aspects of sending the request for proposal (“RFP”), tabulating the results, checking references, and scheduling on-site visits with various custodians. More specifically, after receiving and analyzing the responses from the RFP, Cambridge Associates prepared a summary comparison of candidates, selected the top two candidates, prepared a list of questions, and conducted on-site interviews with each finalist. Finally, Cambridge Associates helped the university select a new custodian and assisted in negotiating fees.

Cambridge Associates has been providing traditional consulting services since 2005. In addition, Cambridge Associates undertook a long-range financial planning study, evaluating the role of debt within the school’s overall financial structure. The analysis provided the school with an overview of the likely financial outcome of continuing operations on the current basis, or of adopting alternative plans or policies. As a result, the school was able to identify areas of vulnerability, raise key strategic questions, and chart future growth and financial stability.

Cambridge Associates serves as the outsourced chief investment officer on a discretionary basis. With a team of 17 consultants, analysts and administrative support professionals, Cambridge Associates monitors the portfolio daily. Cambridge Associates had a robust traditional consulting relationship with the foundation over many years, but was hired to oversee the portfolio on a day-to-day basis to assist the trustees when the CIO and investment staff decided to leave to start a commercial investment enterprise.

traditional consulting services since its start-up in 1996. The foundation approached Cambridge Associates with approximately $1.1 billion in cash and, with the help of Cambridge Associates, has grown its assets to $1.7 billion. The process began by creating investment objectives, an investment policy statement, spending policy, and investment guidelines. The foundation now has a comprehensive investment portfolio and consistently beats benchmarks and top-quartile performing U.S. endowments.