Endowments Record Their Best Performance Since 1989

Pictet

Research

5 Pages

Pictet Wealth Management examines why US university endowments delivered their strongest results in decades. The note explains how large pools tilted toward alternatives and away from traditional public markets, and why that endowment style approach has been structurally advantaged in certain regimes.

Date Published: March 2022

Key Takeaways

Endowment model: Large pools pursue perpetual capital growth with significant allocations to private equity, real assets and hedge strategies.
Structural tilts: Bigger institutions hold less public equity and investment grade bonds and more illiquid return seeking assets than small peers.
Regime sensitivity: Endowment style portfolios tend to shine when small caps do well and inflation or bond yields move meaningfully higher.
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