On Wednesday, February 28, Marquette will be speaking at the CFA Industry Roundtables for Investment Professionals event in Chicago.

Samantha Grant will lead the discussion on manager due diligence, one of many table topics designed to foster in-depth conversations with investment professionals on various sectors in the investment industry. Participants will have the opportunity to speak with industry professionals in an intimate group setting and explore further topics such as consultant relations, emerging markets, fixed income, quantitative analysis, and U.S. equity strategy, among others.

For more information, please visit the Industry Roundtables event page.

On January 4, Kelli Schrade, director of manager research, was quoted in a FundFire article on emerging investment manager search. The article reported on the increased attention emerging managers have been receiving as institutional investors search for new ideas to help drive returns, and the role of investment consulting firms in vetting them.

Attending conferences and receiving cold calls from managers are the two most common ways investment consultants are introduced to emerging managers. But as Kelli pointed out, some managers find it difficult to cold call consultants. Most emerging managers do not have the “robust” marketing teams of their larger competitors. So it’s often up to the research teams of investment consulting firms to help drive more diversity in the asset management industry.

Kelli is a regular speaker and moderator at emerging manager conferences such as the Opal Emerging Managers Summit in Chicago and the Pension Bridge Annual Conference in San Francisco, on a wide range of topics. Past Opal panels Kelli has participated in covered topics such as the investment consulting point of view and the role of consultants in vetting emerging managers. At the most recent Opal summit, Kelli discussed the topic “Why should we look at emerging managers?” on a panel moderated by James Maloney, chairman of the investment committee for Chicago Policemen’s Annuity & Benefit Fund.

The article also covered how eight of the top investment consultants define an “emerging” investment manager. While consultants agree on some characteristics, Kelli responded that the Marquette approach to defining what qualifies as an emerging manager depends on the client.

To read the article, visit the FundFire website (subscription required).

On November 9-10, Kelli Schrade, director of manager research, will participate on a panel of judges during the Manager Finals Competition at the eVestment Institutional Investment Intelligence (EI3) Conference in Atlanta. Serving as a consultant mentor, Kelli will help determine which of three competing groups best uses data to tell the most compelling 10-minute story about their assigned hypothetical product. She will provide input on what investment consultants are looking for from managers during finals presentations to ensure that presentations are on track. Presentations will not focus on other differentiators such as firm history, manager qualifications, investment philosophy, etc. but will be exclusively focused on data.

Marquette investment manager search services help guide institutions in the search for and selection of traditional and alternative investment managers using dedicated asset class analysts. The proprietary Marquette database contains over 14,000 notes on 3,500 investment managers and their 7,000 products. Marquette also draws from eVestment Alliance, Morningstar® Direct, Preqin Ltd. and HFR® data. This comprehensive database is supplemented with more than 1,800 meetings with managers each year – senior Marquette staff interviewing portfolio managers, traders, analysts and other key personnel to verify our thorough analyses on an ongoing basis.

The eVestment Institutional Investment Intelligence (EI3) Conference is hosted for clients of eVestment solutions from both the investor and manager communities. The event aims to explore the big picture gained from eVestment’s unique position in the industry, learn how peers leverage data and analytics to improve outcomes, and to offer an opportunity to influence the roadmap for current and future eVestment solutions.

For more information, please visit the EI3 event website or the Manager Finals Competition page.

On Thursday, September 22, Linsey Schoemehl-Payne will be speaking at the National Association of Security Professionals’ 2016 Emerging Managers Forum in Baltimore. The forum, entitled “In light of BREXIT, is it time to consolidate?” will focus on the shifting course of emerging managers and is designed to educate trustees and the investment community on the emerging investment manager search process. Panel discussions will feature a diverse lineup of speakers, including appointed officials, chief investment officers, plan sponsors and consultants.

Linsey is an investment consultant for Marquette Associates and has over eight years of investment experience. She joined the firm earlier this year from the Illinois State Board of Investment, where she served as general counsel and chief compliance officer. Linsey serves on the boards of Women Investment Professionals and Face the Future Foundation. She was named as a 2012 Rising Star of Public Funds by Money Management Intelligence.

For more information on the event, please visit the NASP event page.

On Tuesday, May 17, Kelli Schrade, director of manager research, will speak on a panel at the eVestment Asset Manager Breakfast Seminar at the Omni Chicago Hotel. The panel will explore how asset managers are using big data and enhanced market intelligence to differentiate strategies.

The panel will cover topics such as:

• Trends in data to help you plan in 2016
• Insight on how Marquette approaches investment manager search
• New ways to think about your business

Marquette Associates guides institutions in the search for and selection of traditional and alternative investment managers using dedicated asset class analysts. The proprietary Marquette database contains over 14,000 notes on 3,500 investment managers and their 7,000 products. Marquette also draws from eVestment Alliance, Morningstar® Direct, Preqin Ltd. and HFR® data. This comprehensive database is supplemented with more than 1,800 meetings with managers each year – senior Marquette staff interviewing portfolio managers, traders, analysts and other key personnel to verify our thorough analyses on an ongoing basis.

For more information on the eVestment Asset Manager Breakfast Seminar, visit the eVestment website.

On Wednesday, April 6, Kelli Schrade, director of manager research, will moderate a panel on emerging managers at the Pension Bridge Annual Conference in San Francisco. Speakers on the panel include Laurie Weir, investment director at California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), Tina Byles Williams, CEO and CIO at FIS Group, Inc. and Nancy Davis, managing partner and CIO at Quadratic Capital Management LLC.

The panel will cover topics such as:

• How are plans defining emerging managers and what has been the evolution of the programs?
• What are the benefits and opportunities offered by Investing in next generation managers?
• Explain diversity and how you achieve it
• What are the best practices for deploying capital in this space?
• Due diligence and key points of analysis for selecting emerging managers
• What separates the emerging managers that will be top performers from the rest of the pack?
• What are the perceived risks of emerging managers? Are they myths or realities?
• Comparing the risk/return profile of emerging managers to established managers
• Research statistics and results on emerging manager performance
• Are there certain asset classes where emerging firms do better or have a performance advantage?
• Are there any differences in procedures for monitoring emerging managers?
• New firms fundraising – how important is it to be spun out from traditional or name-brand firms? Key differentiators that enable a successful fund raising?
• Insider’s view – fundraising process, responsibilities, balancing time and priorities
• What success and challenges have you experienced? Any important lessons learned?
• Is there a need for niche strategies to capitalize on market inefficiencies in order to expand in this market?
• What is happening with firms that have reached critical mass?

For more information, please visit the Pension Bridge website.

On September 16, Kelli Schrade, director of manager research, was quoted in a FundFire article on investment manager search processes, A Firm-by-Firm Guide to Consultant Recommended Lists.

Kelli highlighted the fact that Marquette Associates firmly believes each client should have a customized search process: “We don’t have an approved list and it’s by design because our client base is so diverse. These lists tend to either grow so large that they become meaningless or so small that they’re no longer practical tools.”

“The key to us is that not every great manager is right for every account,” she added. “There are certainly managers that we have high conviction in but that doesn’t mean we have that high conviction for their inclusion in every client portfolio.”

To read the article, visit the Fund Fire website (subscription required).