Other Side of Yale Model: ETFs

Chidem Kurdas
The investment approach associated

Data Digger Attracts Yale

David Swensen has moved Yale University’s endowment away from

Yale Sells Gold Stock

David Swensen, the long-time chief of Yale University’s endowment, is known for his

Foundations Favor Brazil

Political strife in the Middle East has discouraged investor enthusiasm for emerging markets,  but certain countries continue to attract institutions. Some big endowments and foundations favor Brazil and prefer to get wide-ranging exposure to the country’s stock market via exchange-traded funds, rather than investing with active managers.

Among these are Harvard University’s endowment and the Broad Foundation, an organization created by Los Angeles philanthropist  and art collector Eli Broad.

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Blackstone and Private Equity Trend

Blackstone Group’s total assets rose to $119 billion at the end of September from around $111 billion (including non-fee earning assets) in the previous quarter.  Look at the disaggregated numbers and you see a strong trend.

Gates Foundation Stays with Big Names

The portfolio of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s endowment is remarkably stable over time. In part this is because Warren Buffett contributes Berkshire Hathaway shares, which account for a huge chunk of the endowment—$5.9 billion as of July. But the rest of the portfolio does not change much either, consistently emphasizing large-cap companies.

This worked to the endowment’s favor in the past year. As a recent report from Goldman Sachs says, “the biggest publicly traded companies have substantially outperformed the rest of the corporate sector and the economy as a whole.”