Alternative investing How are investors adjusting their allocations to alternatives?
The alternatives market has gained wide acceptance in institutional portfolios. However implementation is not always straight forward. Our report provides an overview of how to integrate alternatives.
The last 30 years have seen a steady growth and acceptance of alternative asset classes in institutional portfolios as investors seek diversified sources of income and return.
Meeting return objectives in the current lower-return environment bolsters the appeal of alternatives
The most aggressive users are US university endowments, some with allocations as high as 60%. Yale University started this trend in the 1980s and is now over 75% invested in alternatives. It is the norm to see 40% to 60% allocations to alternatives in large endowments. Global family offices allocated an average 37% to a variety of alternatives according to a recent survey. Mega funds like large public pension plans and sovereign wealth funds typically allocate 15% to 25% to alternatives and are considering increasing their alternatives allocation.
Alternatives allocations by sample investors
Type | Public pension plans | Sovereign Wealth Fund | University endowment | Global family office | |||||
Entity | CalPERS | GIC (Singapore) | Yale University | 121 surveyed | |||||
Size (in billions USD) | 355.8 | >100 | 30 | 1.6 (average) | |||||
Date | March 2020 | March 2020 | June 2019 | May 2020 | |||||
Allocation (%) | - | - | - | - | |||||
Equities | 49 | 30 | 17 | 29 | |||||
Fixed income & Cash | 31 | 50 | 7 | 30 | |||||
Other | - | - | - | 6 | |||||
Alternatives | - | - | - | - | |||||
Private equity | 8 | 13 | 38 | 16 | |||||
Infrastructure | - | - | - | - | |||||
Real estate/real assets | 13 | 7 | 10 | 14 | |||||
Natural resources | - | - | 6 | - | |||||
Hedge funds | - | - | 23 | 5 | |||||
Commodities | - | - | - | - | |||||
Alternatives as % of portfolio | 21 | 20 | 77 | 35 |
This report provides an overview of the different asset classes investors can integrate into their portfolios more broadly – private equity, hedge funds, real estate, infrastructure, and commodities – and how to do so.
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