Investment Governance is the framework of decision-making rights and responsibilities. Effective governance increases the likelihood of meeting investment goals.
Key Elements
Governance Risk: Poor governance can lead to chasing performance, excessive costs, and failure to meet long-term objectives due to emotional reactions to short-term volatility.
The Economic Balance Sheet expands on the traditional accounting balance sheet to include extended assets and liabilities (non-financial).
Structure:
| Assets | Liabilities |
|---|---|
| Financial Assets: Stocks, Bonds, Cash, Real Estate | Financial Liabilities: Mortgages, Loans, Debts |
| Extended Assets: | Extended Liabilities: |
| Human Capital: PV of future labor income | Capitalized Consumption: PV of future living expenses |
| Pension Wealth: PV of future pension payouts | Bequest/Legacy: PV of desired future gifts |
Implications for Asset Allocation: * Human Capital (HC): Usually bond-like (low risk) for stable jobs, equity-like (high risk) for commissions/entrepreneurs. * If HC is bond-like (e.g., tenured professor) \(\rightarrow\) Hold more Equities in Financial Capital. * If HC is equity-like (e.g., stockbroker) \(\rightarrow\) Hold more Bonds in Financial Capital. * Diversification: Avoid holding financial assets highly correlated with Human Capital (e.g., tech employee should minimize tech stocks).
| Approach | Primary Objective | Typical Investor |
|---|---|---|
| Asset-Only | Maximize Sharpe Ratio (Return/Risk) for a given level of volatility. Focus is solely on asset growth. | Endowments, Sovereign Wealth Funds (with vague liabilities), Foundations. |
| Liability-Relative | Fund liabilities (pay obligations when due). Assets are managed to match liability characteristics (duration, inflation sensitivity). | Defined Benefit Pensions, Insurers, Banks. |
| Goals-Based | Achieve specific lifestyle or aspirational goals with specified probabilities of success. Assets are divided into “buckets” (sub-portfolios). | Individual Investors, Wealth Management Clients. |
1. Asset-Only Risk * Volatility (Standard Deviation): The primary measure of risk. * Tracking Error: Risk relative to a benchmark. * Downside Risk: Value at Risk (VaR), Drawdown.
2. Liability-Relative Risk (LDI) * Shortfall Risk: Risk of having insufficient assets to pay liabilities. * Surplus Volatility: Volatility of the surplus (\(Assets - Liabilities\)). * Funding Ratio Volatility: Volatility of the ratio (\(Assets / Liabilities\)).
3. Goals-Based Risk * Failure Probability: The probability of not achieving a specific goal (e.g., “There is a 10% chance I won’t be able to pay for college”). * Weighted Risk: Overall risk is the weighted sum of the risks of individual goal sub-portfolios.
An Asset Class is a group of assets with similar fundamental economic characteristics and systematic risk exposures.
5 Criteria for Valid Asset Classes: 1. Homogeneous: Assets within the class should have similar attributes. 2. Mutually Exclusive: Assets should not overlap significantly with other classes (prevents double-counting risk). 3. Diversifying: Low correlation with other asset classes. 4. Preponderance of Wealth: The class should represent a significant portion of the investable universe. 5. Liquidity/Capacity: The class must be investable for the portfolio’s size without excessive transaction costs.
Factor-Based Asset Allocation views assets as bundles of underlying risk factors (systematic drivers of return).
Process: 1. Determine Objectives: Return requirement, liability coverage, or specific goals. 2. Assess Constraints: Liquidity needs, time horizon, taxes, legal/regulatory, unique circumstances. 3. Choose Approach: Asset-Only vs. Liability-Relative vs. Goals-Based. 4. Develop Capital Market Expectations (CME): Expected returns, risks, correlations. 5. Optimize: Generate the efficient frontier (Asset-Only) or Surplus frontier (LDI). 6. Stress Test: Use Monte Carlo or Scenario Analysis. 7. Select SAA: Choose the portfolio that maximizes utility (satisfies objectives within risk tolerance).
The Global Market Portfolio (GMP) is the portfolio of all risky assets in the world, weighted by market capitalization.
1. Passive vs. Active Implementation * Passive: Tracks a benchmark (Indexing). Used when markets are efficient or costs/taxes are a concern. * Active: Seeks positive alpha (excess return). Used when the investor believes managers have skill or markets are inefficient.
2. Risk Budgeting Allocating the total “risk appetite” across different sources of return. * \[\text{Total Risk} = \text{Strategic Risk} + \text{Active Risk}\] * Strategic Risk: Risk from the SAA (market exposure). Usually the largest contributor to volatility. * Active Risk (Tracking Error): Risk from deviations from the benchmark (security selection or tactical tilts).
Rebalancing is the process of restoring portfolio weights to target SAA weights. It is primarily a risk control mechanism (selling winners, buying losers).
Methods: 1. Calendar Rebalancing: Rebalance at set intervals (e.g., quarterly). Simple but unrelated to market moves. 2. Percentage-of-Portfolio (Range-Based): Rebalance when an asset weight drifts outside a corridor (e.g., Target 50% \(\pm\) 5%). Tighter control.
Optimal Corridor Width Factors:
| Factor | Higher/Greater Factor implies… | Corridor Width |
|---|---|---|
| Transaction Costs | Higher costs to trade. | Wider (Trade less often). |
| Risk Tolerance | Less concern about allocation drift. | Wider. |
| Correlation | Asset moves with the rest of portfolio (less drift). | Wider. |
| Volatility | Asset weight drifts quickly. | Narrower (To control risk). |
| Taxes | Trading triggers gains. | Wider (Asymmetric bands often used). |
Volatility Trade-off: High volatility implies a need for narrower bands to control risk, but also implies higher transaction costs (more frequent trading). The optimal width balances these two forces.
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