In Defense of the Endowment Model, Rightly Understood

September 27, 2024


We are excited to introduce The Long View
: a new series from GEM’s Co-CIO, Matt Bank, exploring a range of topics relevant to the fiduciaries and allocators of institutional capital.


 

The “Endowment Model,” we’re told, is under pressure. For our country’s endowed civic institutions, it’s allegedly too complex, illiquid, and costly. However, in our experience, reports of the “death” of the Endowment Model have always been greatly exaggerated. When properly understood, assessed, and executed, endowment-style investing looks a lot like any other form of active management, with the same attendant virtues and tradeoffs.

In the first of his three-part series on the Endowment Model, Bank dissects:

  1. What the Endowment Model is,
  2. What the Endowment Model is not, and
  3. How endowment-style investing is best implemented for long-term, multi-asset portfolios

 

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