"Although the alternative asset
manager universe continues to be dominated by pension fund assets, as solutions have continued to evolve that are better aligned to investor needs and incorporate lower cost structures, we have seen growing interest from other investor groups such as insurers looking to lock in alpha opportunities presented by continued volatility," WTW's global head of manager research Luba Nikulina said in a statement.
Launched on March 31, 2012, RAM's Strategic Core strategy is ranked in the top 8 percent of the eVestment US core fixed income
manager universe for its five-year performance ending March 31, 2017, returning 3.79 percent during this time period versus 2.34 percent for its benchmark, the Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index.
"Returns need only to be competitive with the rest of the broad
manager universe, both for ESG and conventional strategies," she says.
"The GIPF, in conjunction with the then newly appointed investment consultant RisCura, reviewed the past underperformance of the GIPF relative to the comparative balanced
manager universe and decided to make adjustments based on the fund's ability to access the best skills available in the market for a variety of niche investment mandates," said Maria Dax, the general manager of marketing and communications at GIPF.
The accompanying chart shows the bond index and the median return among 35 stable value funds in the
manager universe of eVestment, Marietta, Georgia.
The former ranks in the first quartile of eVestment Alliance's emerging markets equity
manager universe for the three and five years ended December 2012, with an annualized excess return since its October 2007 inception of 4.20% annualized, before fees.
(The firm's total equity assets under management were $6.5 billion.) The portfolio, somewhat concentrated at 62 po sitions, delivered 7.5% annualized for the three years ended September 2012, versus 2.1% for the MSCI EAFE-ND [net dividend] benchmark, and ranked in the top decile of the eVestment Alliance EAFE Large Cap Core
manager universe for three and five years.
For the three and five years ended March 2012, within the eVestment Alliance's large-cap growth
manager universe, both earned ranks in the top decile.
