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Services

Six ways we help you see the whole picture.

Strategy, policy and governance for organizations that must meet their liabilities at the right level of risk.

Book a 15-minute call
01 / 06

Strategic Asset Allocation

Are your return assumptions built on theory, or on last year?

Pension plans and foundations are liability managers, not just asset managers. We build the economic and investment assumptions behind your asset mix from systematic scenario analysis, filtering out recent market noise.

What you get

  • Detailed economic scenarios, with their logic and historical equivalents
  • Economic and financial inputs for your asset-liability simulations
  • Asset return paths over your planning horizon
  • Expected return forecasts by asset class over ten years
  • Clear narratives for your board package

At the board table

  • Board presentations and dedicated reports
  • Presenting the analysis and recommendations to your board
  • Advising your board on reading asset-liability results
02 / 06

Investment Policy

Does your manager know the rules of the road?

Your Investment Policy Statement is the driver’s manual for your investment managers. It sets the goals, the boundaries and the reporting, and keeps your committee focused on strategy rather than tactics.

What the IPS should settle

  • Target return objectives and permitted assets and strategies
  • Asset allocation bands and rebalancing ranges
  • Diversification objectives
  • Risk tolerance for the whole portfolio, plus asset and strategy limits
  • Reporting: exposures, risk usage, results and compliance

If you manage assets in-house

  • Portfolio guidelines
  • Risk budgeting
  • Risk management policy
03 / 06

Investment Challenges & Decisions

Leverage, liquidity, private assets: is the trade-off clear?

Investors are reaching further along the risk spectrum to meet required returns. That forces trade-offs your investment plan should state clearly. We identify the issues, assess them and build them into how you invest.

Questions we work through

  • How much leverage, and what management challenges does it create?
  • How much liquidity do you need, and what is it for?
  • What premium should you earn for illiquidity?
  • Why private assets, and do they deliver on expectations?
  • What risk metrics should you demand from your managers?
04 / 06

Economic & Investment Environment

What are the predictable surprises?

All asset prices trace their roots to the economy, and economic and policy outcomes rarely match expectations. We hold your strategy up as a lens to the economy’s likely path, honed at a central bank, in financial markets and in top-down balance sheet risk management.

Questions we help answer

  • What do current economic trends suggest about the future?
  • What should we assume about policy makers’ goals?
  • Is our process for forming expected returns reliable and systematic?
  • What economic risks lie over our strategic horizon?
  • Which predictable surprises are we not ready for?
05 / 06

Investment Governance

Is your committee managing the investments, or managing the manager?

We review your governance structure, your committee’s skills and experience, and how it oversees managers. The goal is simple: a committee that sets direction and holds managers to account, rather than doing their job.

Where we look

  • Templates: how the committee is structured and discharges its fiduciary duty
  • Competency: whether members have the skills to oversee the program
  • Activity: overseeing managers, or managing the investments

How we help

  • Draft an investment policy statement
  • Set a hurdle rate and define investment beliefs
  • Set the risk the committee is prepared to take
  • Choose a management approach and structure
  • Hold managers accountable for their fees
  • Set guidelines for impact investing and ESG integration
06 / 06

Bespoke Advisory

Have a niggly problem that doesn’t fit a template?

We size up the challenge, define the review and work towards a plan of action. If you already have a plan, we provide a detached, independent second look. We enjoy that role.

What it can look like

  • Specialized research on a challenge you face
  • Developing and defining policies
  • Action plans to overcome the challenge
  • An independent review of a plan you already have
How we work

From goals to measured success.

A collaborative approach. Every engagement can include board-ready reports, a presentation to your board and ongoing advice.

  1. 01Define your goals
  2. 02Set expectations
  3. 03Delegate authority
  4. 04Define a clear strategy
  5. 05Develop strong leadership
  6. 06Measure success
A short first conversation

Tell us what’s vexing your committee.

Give us fifteen minutes. We prize brevity and clarity, and we listen first, so we don’t waste your time.

Book a 15-minute call 647-987-5198
andrew@spencestrategic.com
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