Marquette Speaking at Institutional Investor 2024 Roundtable for Consultants & Institutional Investors 10/9

July 17, 2024

On Wednesday, October 9, Nat Kellogg, CFA, Dave Smith, CFA, Greg Leonberger, FSA, EA, MAAA, FCA, and Frank Valle, CFA, CAIA will be speaking at Institutional Investor’s 2024 Roundtable for Consultants & Institutional Investors in Chicago.

On the 9th, Nat will be joining a panel entitled, “Consultant CEO/CIO Perspective: Adapting to an Evolving Market & the Growing Scope of Asset Owner Needs,” described as follows: Following on from the consultant market overview, we now hear insights and perspectives from the heads of leading investment consultants. With over 85% of U.S. institutional investors using investment consultants (95% among public pension funds) and the top 20 consultants dominating with 85% of the market share (up from 66% just 10 years ago) according to Coalition Greenwich, advisory market dynamics continue to shift. But what does this mean for consultants and how they work with asset owners and managers?

  • How is your role as investment consultant evolving? In what ways is the scope of work with asset owners increasing and how does this vary between the different types of asset owner? To what degree – and in what ways – do you see your role as a partner to asset owners changing?
  • What are notable investment trends and challenges within the different asset owner channels? What requests are you getting from asset owner clients around geopolitics/ESG/DEI – incorporating/excluding what from portfolios?
  • How are consultant – manager dynamics evolving? Does consolidation within consultancies give greater leverage in fee negotiation with managers? To what degree is the growing manager entry into the OCIO market impacting relationships with consultants? Is the balance changing from one of collaboration to one more competitive in nature?
  • Who are the winners and losers in a consolidating market? What is the role of the smaller, specialized consultants? What is their value proposition? How to compete with the top twenty who dominate market share? Where’s the opportunity within the market evolution?
  • Peer-to-peer collaboration: what types of strategic partnership (if any) are you doing with other consultants?
  • To what degree are you expanding into the RIA channel?
  • Parting thoughts: how optimistic are you about 2025? What will be your main focus for the year? Challenges? What can the institutional investment industry expect in 2025? Where is the industry headed over the next 5 years?

Dave will be moderating a session entitled, “Debate: Active vs. Passive – Time to Reassess?” described as follows: With capital flows shifting from active to passive having made the markets less efficient, and with market observers commenting that active strategies tend to outperform in down or highly volatile markets, is it time to revisit the age-old debate of active vs. passive? Has active underperformance been unfairly overstated? What are the scenarios/environments in which each strategy outperforms? Are the lines between active and passive blurring? How to use the advantages of both in a balanced approach? In this session, we debate these questions along with the merits and disadvantages of each option. Are you ‘Team Active’ or ‘Team Passive’ or ‘Team Balanced’ and will the views put forward persuade you to reconsider? (And to what extent will this become moot with AI?)

Frank will be the session leader for “Think Tank Networking: Is Your Public Fixed Income Strategy Robust Enough? Examining the Understated & Overlooked Opportunities Within the ‘New Fixed Income Regime’” described as follows:
After being savaged by long duration bonds in 2022, are asset owners a little gun-shy today? After a great drawdown and now that rates are back up, are there enough truly diversified underlying assets in portfolios? Are portfolios underexposed in high-quality bonds? How have allocators been adapting to the “new fixed income regime”? Where is capital being deployed and what are expectations in this higher rate environment? How are approaches to traditional fixed income changing, particularly with possible rate cuts on the horizon? Are opportunities being overlooked or understated? What are the new emerging strategies and opportunities to take advantage of in public fixed income? And what should allocators be watching as we close out 2024 and head into 2025? 

Greg will be moderating a panel discussion entitled, “Being Creative with Pension Surplus in a New Environment,” described as follows: Today’s pension environment is drastically different from what it was in 2008 when pensions were last overfunded. Today’s higher inflation and interest rate environment has changed conversations about what to do with surpluses while they exist. Beyond using OCIOs and PRTs, how are plan sponsors optimizing the surplus? Using fixed income to de-risk plans? Introducing cash balance plans? Offering members healthcare benefits? In this discussion, we examine various strategic options for surpluses, their pros and cons for sponsors and members, and the implementation considerations. We also address the question of when to spend vs. maintain a surplus.

The Roundtable for Consultants & Institutional Investors will offer valuable insights and a forum for critical exchanges with peers. For more information, please visit the event webpage.

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