Strategically Focused. High-Level Performance.
Principles and professional standards of investment management and oversight
Strategic Beliefs
WISIMCO believes there are two fundamental risks in managing the endowment: near-term liquidity risk and erosion of the real long-term value of the endowment investment portfolio (EIP).
With these risks in mind, the endowment’s investments are primarily oriented toward long-term growth assets, such as global equity and private capital.
WISIMCO holds six core strategic beliefs that guide our investment decisions for delivering return outcomes against these risks.
Partnership Matters
Institutional allocators typically talk about the “four P’s” of manager selection: people, process, philosophy, and performance. WISIMCO adds a fifth “P” — partnership — to the list of considerations. Our partnerships usually extend beyond the typical scope of capital relationships. In addition to managing a portion of our capital, our partners are often helpful across our entire portfolio by sharing investment insights and networks.
Talented People and Great Investments are Scarce
There are many talented investors and solid investments but very few great ones. When we see something special, we prudently concentrate capital to ensure that our risk-taking reflects the unique nature of the opportunity. Similarly, we invest with managers that have strong track records of monetizing investments through concentrated capital allocation.
Siloed Decision-Making Results in Uneven Risk-Taking
Many institutional allocators have specialized teams that invest capital at the asset class level. WISIMCO believes that this model often results in suboptimal risk-taking, as each asset class is frequently treated as a separate, segregated portfolio. To avoid this pitfall, WISIMCO operates under a generalist model where team members debate the best use of incremental capital for the endowment at large.
People Respond to Incentives
When selecting investments and managers, we strongly believe that our financial interests should be aligned with those of our partners. This is one of the reasons why WISIMCO prefers single-vehicle or single-strategy relationships (in contrast to diversified asset management platforms) where the success or failure of the investment has material consequences for our partners.
Markets are Weakly Efficient
Although we believe it’s possible to outperform overall stock market indexes through thoughtful and informed security selection, this is only ever true over the long term, and outperformance potential varies widely by geography and capitalization.
Keep it Simple
Although WISIMCO is regularly pitched esoteric and complicated investment strategies, we believe that we will do better over time with straightforward and replicable processes.
High Standards of Performance
The graph below illustrates the market value of the EIP over the last 10-year period. As of June 30, 2024, the EIP is over $4.3 billion in value. The change in market value is driven by many factors, including performance, transfers to and from the EIP, spend plan payments, and fees.
Endowment Portfolio Performance
WISIMCO delivered a robust 14.7% return for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024, outperforming the global 70/30 benchmark by 170 basis points, driven primarily by an overweight allocation to global equity and strong performance in both global equity and private capital sectors. Over a three-year period, WISIMCO has returned 3.8%, outpacing the global 70/30 benchmark by 220 basis points.
Strategic Asset Allocation
The Investment Committee has adopted a strategic asset allocation (SAA) to provide the highest probability of achieving UWF’s investment objectives based on historical returns, forward-looking expectations, established portfolio practices, and risks. The SAA consists of four policy asset classes, which collectively provide long-term growth, liquidity, and diversification at the endowment level.
Please visit the Reports page to view the Annual Report.