Alternative Assets and Strategic Allocation: Rethinking the Institutional Approach

CHAPTER 24

Managing the Allocation Decision

It may seem peculiar that a book addressed to investment policymakers has made no effort to identify who they are. It is, of course, to be hoped that they already know. But as a general rule, issues of institutional portfolio governance are rarely explored, and the nature of the oversight function, including the depth of its involvement in what I have described as “lower order” decision-making, varies widely. “Institution” is yet another portmanteau term, embracing everything from large insurers for which investment is a core commercial competence to small eleemosynary establishments overseen by unpaid but nevertheless deeply committed volunteers. Included within the term’s scope are giant state pension ...