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Individual Portfolio Project - Part I
The Board of Trustees at UNCW oversees a modest endowment of about $100 million. The Board intends to provide a reliable revenue stream to back the University's work for the foreseeable future. After accounting for inflation and administrative costs, the real target return for the Endowment's investments is 5.5 percent each year. The Endowment does this by keeping a diverse portfolio of assets in several asset groups.
To guarantee that funds are invested in a way that furthers the mission of the Endowment, a formal Investment Policy Statement (IPS) has been drafted. The IPS's overarching mission is to safeguard the Endowment's assets by ensuring that they are invested prudently and consistently with the Endowment's stated purpose. Investment restrictions, liquidity requirements, and the Endowment's time horizon are all laid forth in the IPS (Chambers et al., 2020).
The UNCW has an endowment of approximately $100 million and its long-term annual real return objective is +5.5%, net of covering reasonable and appropriate charges to administer fundraising. The primary goal of this paper is to review the endowment's spending real return objectives, administrate fee constraints and make recommendations for any changes to the 12/31/19 asset class and allocation target.
The Endowment's goal is to maximize its investment returns within its mandated risk parameters by purchasing safe, liquid assets. Therefore, the Endowment has embraced an absolute return strategy and reduced its reliance on high-risk assets (Neeraja, & Sobanraja,2020). The Endowment's goal is always to have enough cash to pay its expenses. Therefore it avoids or minimizes risky investments wherever possible .
The Endowment adheres to a strict spending strategy that allocates 4.5% of its total assets for expenditure and an extra 1.25 % for administrative expenses. Therefore, the Endowment must have a reserve of liquid assets equal to its annual expenditure requirements if it is to adhere to this spending strategy (Chambers et al., 2020). The Endowment also works to keep reserves liquid enough to cover emergencies like sudden increases in spending.
The Endowment has finally settled on a time horizon for its financial holdings. With a time horizon of five to seven years, the Endowment hopes to generate the actual returns it needs to fulfill its mission. For the Endowment to ensure its holdings are following its aims, it has to be able to look at the big picture and make allocation changes over a period that is longer than the time horizon of any one investment.
It is suggested that the Endowment revise its asset class and allocation objectives for 12/31/19 in light of the Endowment's investing strategies and restrictions. The Endowment should consider raising its allocation to high-quality assets with a decent return profile and minimal risk of loss. For the Endowment to be financially stable and satisfy its obligations, it may be prudent to increase its liquidity, decrease its holdings in high-risk assets, and improve its access to liquid assets. The Endowment could also spread its money by investing in other markets and industries.
It is also advised that the Endowment adopt a long-term strategy to its investments to ensure that they are handled following the Endowment's aims and objectives. The Endowment should regularly evaluate the performance of its assets to achieve its long-term real return targets over an investment horizon of five to seven years. The Endowment should also consider periodic portfolio rebalancing to keep its asset classes and allocation goals stable.
The Endowment might use academic journals like the Journal of Mutual Funds, the Research of Private Equity, and the Journal of Financial Services to support these suggestions (Neeraja, & Sobanraja,2020). Comprehensive and current data on several subjects, including asset allocation and portfolio management, may be found on these sites. The Endowment should also talk to its financial advisers and other professionals to ensure its money is used wisely.
In conclusion, to better correspond with its investment goals and policies, the Endowment may choose to revise its asset class and allocation targets for the year ending December 31, 2019. To guarantee the Endowment can fulfill its spending obligations, it should increase its allocation to high-quality investments with an acceptable return profile and low risk of loss, decrease its exposure to higher-risk assets and illiquid investment, and increase its level of liquidity. The Endowment should also consider adopting a long-term perspective on its investments and diversifying over a wide range of asset classes and industries. To ensure the Endowment's assets are being managed in a way that serves its purposes, it should draw on academic resources and talk to its advisers and other professionals.
References
Chambers, D., Dimson, E., & Kaffe, C. (2020). Seventy-five years of investing for future generations. Financial Analysts Journal, 76(4), 5-21. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0015198X.2020.1802984
Neeraja, M., & Sobanraja, M. (2020). An empirical investigation on portfolio decision-making of individual investors. Journal of Contemporary Issues in Business and Government| Vol, 26(2), 750. https://cibgp.com/article_7773_9caf384a073eec290185367997387563.pdf