ENDOWMENT PERFORMANCE AND PAY AT OUR FLAGSHIP STATE SCHOOLS:

Last year we published our first annual review of endowment performance at the biggest and best public colleges.  See: https://www.charlesskorina.com/nl-46-performance-pay-and-the-rest-of-the-story/

The public-college endowments garner much less attention than Harvard or Yale.  They’re a bit smaller, and they’re scattered across the country in uncouth fly-over states outside the Northeast Media Corridor.  And their graduates are statistically less likely to land in the White House.  But attention must still be paid.

For one thing, as our survey last year demonstrated, many Public Ivy investors have been kicking the assets of their Private Ivy “betters” for years.  As of fiscal year 2012, the Universities of Virginia, Michigan, Pittsburgh and Texas(and Penn State) all had five-year returns superior to Harvard, Yale or Stanford.

Skorina’s Ultimate Outsourcer List, Version 3.2

We present our all-new, freshly-researched list of OCIOs: firms offering “outsourced chief investment officer” services to endowments, foundations, and charities.  The list has grown to 77 firms and we think it’s the most comprehensive and useful in the industry.

This list should help anyone considering the OCIO option.  We are thinking specifically of board members and directors at pensions, endowments, foundations, and other tax-exempt funds.  You now have a comprehensive list of firms who provide OCIO services and how to reach them.

MOHAMED EL-ERIAN: PIMCO’s heir-apparent goes missing

The noisiest recent CIO turnover was at a sell-side firm, but one which is closely watched by many institutions.  PIMCO’s CEO and Co-CIO Mohamed El-Erian has been replaced — or at least succeeded by — a whole roomful of folks.  El-Erian, who reportedly earned $100 million in 2011, announced his departure in January and was gone by March 1^st.  He has no job in prospect except a part-time gig as a consultant to PIMCO’s German parent Allianz SE.

AN OLD-SCHOOL CIO DEFENDS OLD-SCHOOL PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT

Mr. Robert M. Maynard, chief investment officer of Idaho PERS, takes exception to the whole “endowment model” approach to portfolio management, raising some points that we haven’t seen articulated so clearly elsewhere.