Albourne Partners has been an advocate for fee innovation in the investment industry, focusing on the shape of fees, and fee discovery and transparency. A recent review by the firm showed that managers are being rewarded for fee innovation. John Claisse, the firm’s chief executive said there was also a relationship between manager performance and willingness to be flexible on fees.

“We looked at managers that had a collective 189 different fee changes made over the last two years, and our research showed that, from the point where those changes were made, 70% had a positive trailing three-year return, so it was not necessarily managers that were already underperforming,” he said in a Fiduciary Investors Series podcast.

Albourne has been looking at the shape of fees since 2012 for its clients, and implemented a 1-or-30 approach to alternative manager fees. The consultant also launched Into the Matrix initiative in 2016, gathering data from 750 funds with over $600 billion in assets, who are answering surveys about what types of fee structures they’d be willing to look at and be flexible with.

Most recently, Albourne, in conjunction with AIMA, launched a due diligence questionnaire that focuses on diversity and inclusion.

“We’ve had phenomenal feedback about the questionnaire and already more than 400 funds that have submitted the questionnaire. The feedback from investors is they have been struggling on how to gather the data, so having a standardised template for them is helpful. On the manager side our preliminary feedback has been positive, it is helpful in triggering their own work internally and new policies in response to thinking through the questions and enhance their own D&I.”

For the full article, click here.

Albourne has just published a film on its recently launched Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Questionnaire.

Please click below to watch the clip:

The film encourages managers to complete the questionnaire, and covers why this is an important first step in increasing transparency around the alternative industry’s efforts to embrace D&I.

The new and freely available D&I Questionnaire, produced by Albourne and AIMA, is available for all alternative investment managers. It provides a means for managers to supply information to investors in a standardized format.

For more information on this questionnaire and Albourne’s D&I initiative, please see the relevant news release here.

• A new and freely available Diversity & Inclusion ("D&I") questionnaire is available for all alternative investment managers. 
• This is an important step to increase transparency around the alternatives industry’s efforts in embracing D&I. The motivation to adopt D&I best practices is becoming widely accepted; the practical aspects of this, however, remain a work in progress.
• Alternative investment managers wishing to complete the questionnaire can do so on Albourne’s manager portal: MoatSpace or by downloading the word document at AIMA.org.

Will Bryant of Albourne outlines a cutting-edge technique to identify exposures to material ESG risks.

Albourne continues to observe investors focusing on responsible investment and a requirement for fund managers to integrate financially material environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in the investment process. In response to this need, Albourne believes that an evolving and viable solution to understand exposure is to harness Open Protocol information (standardised risk reporting information by asset class) by mapping it onto the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board’s (SASB)¹ materiality matrix. There are several moving parts to understanding why harnessing ESG transparency is so important; this article breaks down some key questions Albourne often gets asked.

Where are we today?

Within the alternatives space, particularly in relation to hedge funds, the adoption of ESG remains in a nascent state, with investors and fund managers looking to define what responsible investing means in the context of a number of different strategy approaches across a range of asset classes, where a traditional approach to responsible investment may not be obvious.

It’s now a year since Albourne wrote the article ‘Standardise to Sustain’ in the HFM ESG Special Report, and while much has been written and discussed since then, the evolution of standardised data availability has not progressed significantly. That said, there have well-publicised initiatives by large asset managers supporting specific frameworks to achieve a more standardised approach to the reporting of data. Further, regulators have been looking more closely at corporate ESG reporting with the European Commission’s consultation on Non-Financial Reporting Directive.

Demand for standardised relevant information to be available for use by investors when looking to more systematically integrate ESG information within their investment process is increasing. However, a widely recognised standard framework that can be used as an input to the investment process is yet to emerge, meaning that a standard framework to be used to report on the output of the investment process is also not available. Investors, on the other hand, are looking to meet future stakeholder requirements and are aware that portfolio- level reporting will be necessary.

What are the issues around reporting?

The lack of consistent and comparable data from underlying issuers means reporting is a contentious issue. This is exacerbated in the world of alternatives, which are often actively managed, can be benchmark agnostic, and where managers often invest in order to either harness the price move from corporate change or even to elicit that change through direct engagement or action.

While more alternative managers are implementing some level of ESG reporting, which is to be commended, this reporting is not typically in a format that asset owners can aggregate across their portfolio to get a holistic view of the ESG factors and issues affecting their portfolio.

Reporting is frequently in the format of case studies, discussing in a qualitative manner how ESG has been integrated into the investment decision, or how through active engagement the fund manager is looking to influence the asset’s ESG activities. Case studies only address a subset of the portfolio and allow for some level of cherry picking of what is presented and are not in a format capable of aggregation.

Other managers, typically at the impact end of the spectrum, do look to report on all assets in their portfolio and use quantitative metrics. However, due to the specificity of the key performance indicators that the manager selects at the outset of the investment, these are difficult to aggregate.

The UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) has ‘reporting’ as one of the six principles that signatories commit to follow: “Principle 6: We will each report on our activities and progress towards implementing the Principles”². For many, the extent of their reporting is the PRI’s own annual transparency report³. The PRI reporting is available online; however, the detail around ESG integration is typically in the form of a descriptive response that does not allow for portfolio-level aggregation.

How do Open Protocol and the Materiality Matrix provide a solution?

Open Protocol is a reporting framework that came about within the hedge fund industry in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008. At that time, investors were looking for greater consistency in the reporting received from fund managers, so that they could collect, collate and compare information in a consistent format.

The Open Protocol⁴ framework consists of a template to enable fund managers to produce consistent reports in compliance with a detailed manual. Open Protocol was created by an independent working group of investors, fund managers and service providers. As of mid-2020, Albourne was aware of 685 funds producing reports using the Open Protocol template, representing assets of just under $1.5trn. The funds producing this Open Protocol reporting include alternative and traditional asset managers.

Open Protocol is structured in a format such that almost any investment vehicle can provide reporting via the Open Protocol framework. The basis of Open Protocol reporting is that managers provide standardised information on their exposures by asset class (equity, sovereign fixed income, credit, etc.) based on different characteristics that are relevant to each asset class (sector, market capitalisation, credit rating, country, etc.). The key utility of Open Protocol is that the standard framework allows for simple comparison and collation of the data, such that information can be aggregated to provide a holistic portfolio view. This allows investors to easily view their portfolio exposures to an asset class, sector or country. While Open Protocol does not capture any specific ESG information (such as CO2 emissions, climate scenario testing or ESG ratings) it does provide a framework for mapping current exposures to potential risk areas from an ESG perspective.

SASB looks to set a reporting standard for corporates to report financially material sustainability or ‘extra-traditional’ financial data, by creating its materiality map⁵. This map is becoming a market standard with regards to what sustainability factors or issues are likely to materially affect the financial or operating performance of a company based on its sector. The materiality map looks at various topics under multiple dimensions, such as air quality and energy management under the ‘environment’ and then determines the likelihood by sector of the issue being financially material. By mapping this framework of sector material issues to the sector information provided through Open Protocol, investors can get an understanding of which funds and portfolios have significant exposure to material ESG issues. For example, a portfolio that has high exposure to healthcare or technology would show high exposure to data security as a material ESG issue, but low exposure to air quality relative to transportation.

It is therefore proposed to map Open Protocol sector exposure information to the SASB sector materiality matrix. This will give investors the ability to understand exposures within their funds and portfolios to potential material ESG issues.

What can using existing frameworks provide investors?

The approach laid out above maps exposures, via a format that can be aggregated at a portfolio level, with a framework that has been developed in order to think about the financially material ESG issues. This represents an interim solution for asset owners while further work is carried out on the provision of standardised ESG data, which will permit reporting in a standardised format.

Keeping true to several famous philosophers including Voltaire, who cited that “the best is the enemy of the good”, it is clear that the path of responsible investing is an evolving one. Reporting is an important step along that path and will improve over time, but at this point, Albourne believes that the mapping of exposures to material ESG issues through an established framework is a good step forward as the industry creates a new and standardised approach to ESG reporting that is acceptable and relevant to stakeholders.

¹www.sasb.org
²www.unpri.org/pri/an-introduction-to-responsible-investment/what-are-the-principles-for-responsible-investment
³www.unpri.org/signatories/reporting-for-signatories
⁴www.sbai.org/toolbox/open-protocol-op-risk-reporting
⁵https://materiality.sasb.org

The Standards Board for Alternative Investments (SBAI) has established a new regional committee focusing on the SBAI’s work in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA Region) with Elena Manola-Bonthond, CIO of CERN Pension Fund, appointed as Chairman.

The 11-member committee, which is equally split across asset owners and investors, includes Angela Borrett, Partner, European ODD, Albourne Partners.

Managers from Europe (including the UK) account for 35% of the SBAI’s Signatories and institutional investors account for 32% of the SBAI’s Investor Chapter Members. The SBAI’s EMEA Committee is the third regional committee following the creation of its Asia Pacific and North American Committees in 2016 and 2018, respectively. 

Mario Therrien, Chairman of the SBAI said: “We’re excited about the launch of the EMEA Committee and are grateful for the support of the industry leaders who agreed to serve as its members. While the SBAI’s Alternative Investment Standards are universal in nature, it is important that we have industry leaders to address unique topics and facilitate the dialogue between regional asset owners, managers and regulators.”

For the full press release, please click here.

The Standards Board for Alternative Investments (SBAI) has published three memos on alternative credit fund management focusing on fund structuring considerations, valuation and conflicts of interest. The memos provide guidance to managers and investors on these topics and a framework of questions investors may wish to ask managers when conducting operational due diligence. 

The memos were developed by the Standards Board’s Alternative Credit Working Group which consists of 45 leading institutional investors and managers - among which is Albourne Partners.

The Fund Structuring Memo focusses on the key considerations for the two most common fund models employed by alternative credit managers: the closed-ended private equity model and the open-ended hedge fund model. 

The Valuation Memo highlights the key features of a robust valuation framework and illustrates the fair value process for direct loans. Ryan Teal, Partner and Head of Operational Due Diligence Americas at Albourne Partners and member of the working group said: “Fair Value matters to institutional investors, to inform their risk management and investment decision making, satisfy their accounting requirements, and ensure fair treatment of ultimate beneficiaries.”   

The Conflicts of Interest Memo identifies the specific conflicts of interest that can arise in funds investing in alternative credit, including in situations where different funds invest in different parts of a company’s capital structure and where one fund refinances a loan held by another fund. 

The SBAI Alternative Credit Working Group will continue to review other areas of relevance in alternative credit, including investor disclosure and applicability of Responsible Investment considerations. In addition to the SBAI’s work in Alternative Credit, the SBAI is currently running active working groups focussing on the following areas: Governance, Responsible Investments, Insurance Linked Funds, Factor Investing, Standard Investor Profile Template, as well as regional focus groups (China, Japan). 

For a full press release, click here.

Committed to Diversity and Inclusion, alternative investments consultant Albourne Partners has published a film highlighting the importance of women’s voice in the financial world.

6 March 2020 – Ahead of International Women’s Day (8 March 2020), Albourne Partners has released a film featuring the female members of Albourne’s Senior Corporate Planning Committee*, who put the spotlight on the significant role women play at the company, and the achievements that they have accomplished over the years.

Clare Cuming, Head of Communications at Albourne Partners, commented that the team wanted to produce an inspiring, empowering and informative piece focusing on the importance of having a voice in an industry that is striving for equality and diversity. 

Staying faithful to its pledge to be an equal opportunities employer, the global alternatives consultancy firm is proud that women represent nearly half of its workforce. 

“Women occupy positions across all functions. Some of us joined as recent graduates and have worked our way up to senior positions while others have come with a wealth of experience from the alternative investments industry having held senior investment roles at institutions and funds. Today, at Albourne, women hold high-ranking positions such as Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Head of Europe, and Head of Cyprus,” stated Cuming. 

Meropi Stavrou, Head of Human Resources, added that as a global company, Albourne Partners is committed to fostering, cultivating and preserving a culture of diversity and inclusion. “Our D&I policy underlines that the collective sum of the individual differences, life experiences, knowledge, inventiveness, innovation, self-expression, unique capabilities, and talent that employees invest in their work represents a significant part of Albourne Partners’ culture, reputation and overall achievement,” she explained.

Albourne’s message is a simple one – Be Inclusive, Be Kind, Be Equal.  

Committed to Diversity & Inclusion, alternative investments consultant Albourne Partners actively engages in events promoting D&I principles and practice.

London, 18 February 2020 – On 13 February, Albourne took part in She Can Be…, a London-based event and initiative, created and organized by The Lord Mayor’s Appeal charity, with the aim to inspire young women to consider career paths in the City. The event was constructed to educate, empower and expand young women’s perceptions of their career options, and encourage them to pursue as many opportunities as men do. She Can Be… was a full-day event, where young women, aged between 14 and 15, visited Albourne’s London office to learn about the business. Albourne’s morning session was hosted and organized by Albourne’s Head of Communications, Clare Cuming. The young women received an introduction to Albourne and then took part in three workshops. Albourne representatives (in addition to representatives from the other 24 participating companies) then joined over 250 students for an inspirational afternoon session.

For recent press coverage of Albourne's initiative, please see the following Pensions & Investments article.

                                                                                           Albourne Partners' participation in She Can Be…

Earlier this year, Albourne’s Tathata Lohachitkul, Portfolio Analyst and Partner, was among the speakers at CAIA San Francisco Diversity and Inclusion event, aimed at identifying current practices, perspectives and what needs to change. In addition, Jinal Patel, Operational Due Diligence Analyst, joined AIMA’s breakfast panel in New York to discuss Diversity and Inclusion in the Hedge Fund industry focusing on the key principles identified in AIMA’s recent publication The Alternatives.

On the occasion, Isela Rosales, Chapter Executive at CAIA, thanked the speakers for being such passionate speakers. She commented, "We received many compliments following the events by our attendees and I witnessed the crowds continuing to linger to speak with the presenters personally following the panels. We appreciate the time and energy they dedicated from their busy schedules to support CAIA and AIMA."

Albourne Partners places great emphasis on the value of Diversity and Inclusion and is actively engaging in industry events that promote this drive within the Alternative investments world. Albourne encourages fund managers to include policies and statistics on diversity within each of their ownership structures, its lead decision-makers and its broader organization. Further, Albourne Partners has put forward a relevant proposal in its Investor Manifesto II which recommends that managers document a Diversity and Inclusion Policy and implement practices that foster Diversity and Inclusion.

The Standards Board for Alternative Investments (SBAI) has published a memo on co-investments which was developed by the Standards Board’s Governance Working Group. 

The Standard Board’s Co-investment memo sets out the processes investment managers need to put in place to address key governance and compliance challenges that can arise when granting investors the right to co-invest. The memo also covers structuring considerations and issues in relation to fee, expense and cost allocation.

Jessica Ross, Head of Customized Investments at Albourne Partners, said: “The best way for managers to address conflicts of interest and risks that can arise through co-investments is to adopt a co-investment policy which establishes procedures addressing the entire process from the allocation decision all the way through to the liquidation of the co-investment. The memo sets out these process steps, including suitability assessment of the co-investments opportunity, an investor eligibility framework, structuring considerations and the allocation/disposal approach.”  

Currently, the Governance Working Group is reviewing a number of other topics, including investment manager committee structures and fund Director conflicts of interest. The findings of these reviews will be published in the coming months as part of the SBAI Toolbox.

For the full story, click here.

Albourne continues to see increased demand from investors for ESG integration in the investment process, however there are issues that both fund managers and investors face when integrating ESG in their processes.

Albourne has integrated a review of managers ESG capabilities in its Operational Due Diligence with the aim to provide an overview of their ESG capabilities, thus complimenting the investment, operational and quantitative due diligence that Albourne already completes on funds. The significant issue for fund managers continues to be accessibility to objective standard material ESG information on the investment universe.

Please watch the below Albourne film on the aspirations and challenges of ESG reporting, covering the following key areas:

• Why Albourne views that the integration of ESG data into investment decisions is key.
• What can be done to make it easier for managers to integrate ESG data into their investment processes.
• The need for a standardized reporting framework for ESG data from corporates.

Albourne believes that the future of ESG data provision requires a standardized framework, allowing for simple collection collation and comparison, similar to the creation of the Open Protocol reporting of a fund’s risk exposures. The ability for fund managers to factor in all information that is relevant and material to an investment, is the key to any investment strategy. Albourne is looking to work with others in the investment industry that are focused on providing a solution to this problem.

An Interview with Simon Ruddick

Simon Ruddick is the founder and current Chairman of Albourne Partners, a major player in the financial services industry that has been providing research advice on alternative investments since 1994. The combined investments of the firm’s clients now top $500 billion. 

As a long-standing supporter of Synchronicity Earth, we asked Simon what lay behind his growing passion for the natural world and his commitment to promoting the urgency of environmental issues within his industry. We also learnt more about what Albourne are doing to promote greater integration of Environmental, Social and Governance criteria in the sector. 

The global alternatives community has published a Diversity and Inclusion guide in a push to attract the broadest pool of talent to the industry. This paper:

• brings hedge fund leaders’ perspectives on the competitive advantage of having a diverse team;
• establishes D&I practices as a strategic senior management matter;
• provides 45 practical recommendations to enhance diversity and inclusion (D&I) in hedge funds. 

A woman from a New York housing project who becomes co-CEO of the largest hedge fund firm in the world. A young man who learns investing from scratch in order to provide for his family. A woman who leaves the former Eastern Bloc and pays her way through Harvard so she can learn how capitalism works. A man who doesn’t believe those who tell him finance isn’t for people like him, and goes on to gain a doctorate in econometrics.

These are just some of the stories of the hedge fund industry. Our industry has always attracted pioneers; hedge fund firms are staffed with people who refuse to accept the status quo. This pioneering spirit is now being turned inwards, as hedge fund firms examine the composition of their own workforces. Despite leading the investment management industry in many fields, hedge fund firms still face challenges when it comes to attracting and retaining diverse talent. These challenges are not, of course, entirely of the industry’s own making. Social norms in many countries deter women from pursuing quantitative subjects, for instance, and thus limit the pool of talent available to hedge fund firms. Further, the small size of most hedge fund firms limits their ability to search out talent, meaning that those who are not already familiar with the industry may have trouble finding a way in.

The attached paper, was produced by AIMA in partnership with EY. This paper is intended as a first, partial answer to the question of what hedge fund firms can do to promote D&I. Before that question can be answered, however, we must first explain what we mean by diversity and inclusion. This paper will use the definitions adopted by the AIMA Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group. Diversity is taken to mean the presence of underrepresented groups from all backgrounds, life experiences, and beliefs. Inclusion is the act of ensuring that all individuals are equally recognised and respected, and are judged only on their contributions to the organisation. D&I is thus a situation in which underrepresented groups are not only present, but accorded the respect and recognition they deserve. This paper is based on in-depth interviews with over a dozen figures in the hedge fund industry around the world who have pioneered new approaches to D&I. It is also informed by research into how firms large and small have promoted D&I. 

Simon Ruddick, Chairman of Albourne Partners, on D&I in the Hedge Fund Industry

Diversity is about the composition of the workforce. Based on the definitions we’ve seen from the investors we work with, diversity typically focuses on women and minority groups, including ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ individuals, veterans and persons with disabilities.  There are many other elements of diversity, such as socioeconomic background, educational background, religion, and age. However, these are not elements of diversity that we’ve typically seen investors focused on. Inclusion is present when underrepresented groups within an organisation feel valued, respected and empowered to fully participate and share their views. Simply put, diversity is about composition and inclusion is about culture.

We believe that diverse teams lead to better decision making, as a diverse team leads to cognitive diversity. A homogenous team presents a source of risk, which is the risk of groupthink. Another way to frame this is that in portfolio construction, we all understand the benefits of diversification: adding assets that have a low correlation to other assets in the portfolio lowers the overall risk of the portfolio. In team construction, if you have a diverse team, you'll add orthogonal perspectives into the mix, which lowers the risk of groupthink and increases the chances that you’ll catch your blind spots.

Albourne’s Role

As a consultant, our role in promoting D&I is to collect D&I information (via establishing a standardised due diligence questionnaire), validate that information (via our operational due diligence—ODD—process), and through that process lead managers to reflect on their D&I profiles.  

We've encouraged managers to self-classify as minority/women-own business enterprises (MWBE) since 2012 via MoatSpace (Albourne’s portal for fund managers to enter their data). We have over 60 investment due diligence analysts meeting with managers, and when they meet with managers who they understand are MWBE managers, they ask the managers to self-classify. We canvass service providers (like cap intro groups who maintain lists of MWBE managers) so we can aggregate this. Clients currently have the ability to search for MWBE funds on the Albourne client web portal. The existing MoatSpace questionnaire is narrow in scope in that it only applies to women and minorities who are US citizens, as the MWBE definition used by some of the institutional investors we referenced when we built the questionnaire limited the definition of MWBE managers this way. A challenge is what the definition of MWBE is: is it based on ownership or on the senior risk-taker? So it was important that we revamp our original MWBE questionnaire, so that it's more comprehensive. 

We're also partnering with AIMA to produce a questionnaire inspired by the one used by the Institutional Limited Partners Association that can be used across the alternatives industry. This will include ownership and workforce diversity statistics, as well as policies and practices on D&I issues such as family leave, anti-harassment, retention, and recruitment. 

The other aspect that we're rolling out is the new ESG and Manager and Employment Practices section in our ODD report, which will focus on the validation of anti-harassment, equal pay and diversity policies and initiatives. Within the next 12 months, through our over 80-person ODD team, we expect that we will have captured D&I information in our ODD reports on over 1,000 funds. Based on the work we've done so far, managers want feedback and guidance on D&I. Similar to how managers want to align themselves with industry best practices on ODD, managers are eager to learn how they can align themselves with best practices on D&I.  

We are still in the early stages of capturing more information on D&I. Managers should be capturing data and measuring the diversity of their organisation. They should also establish D&I policies and practices. Anti-harassment and equal pay policies should be in place. An important aspect of due diligence on this topic is that D&I policies may be in place but what practices are actually being implemented? 

D&I is one of the high priority initiatives within our Investor Manifesto II, which is a document we published that includes 50 initiatives we're advocating for across the alternatives industry.  

D&I is not just a company policy. It is who we want to be.

Please see the attached full paper for more details.

Albourne published the Investor Manifestor II (IMii) in October 2018, furthering its commitment to the pursuit of better practice within the Alternatives industry. This 50-point Manifesto is the second edition of the Investor Manifesto, and it covers ten themes that Albourne has been discussing with investors, industry bodies, managers and regulators. 

The below booklet provides a short narrative of the objectives, key points, considerations, and ultimate value of the first 14 proposals of the Investor Manifesto II.

Hedge fund managers have heard the message regarding the diversity and inclusivity composition of their employee force directly from their institutional investors, investment consultants said.

"There's a business case for managers because many institutional investors have adopted the concept that diverse teams lead to better decision making. A homogeneous team represents a source of risk — group think," said Tathata "Ta" Lohachitkul, partner and portfolio analyst, based in the San Francisco office of alternative investment consultant Albourne Partners Ltd.

"Many investors … have expressed the perspective that a diverse team leads to cognitive diversity, which leads to better investment outcomes," Ms. Lohachitkul added.

Global investment consultant Albourne Partners announced its revamped News & Initiatives page on www.albourne.com. 

Albourne prides itself on its non-discretionary business model which sets it apart from competitors, and its role as an advisor and advocate for better practices within the alternatives industry over the last 25 years. The webpage features press coverage of Albourne in recent years and information on the firm’s key initiatives.

“At launch, this page includes over 20 articles written on Albourne, including hot-off-the-press coverage from HFM on the importance of improving ESG data, as well as a recent piece from Pensions & Investments on the increasing rarity of pure-play non-discretionary consultants,” said Clare Cuming, Head of Communications at Albourne Partners. She added that, “The webpage hosts Albourne’s first public film, Women in Alternatives, which highlights several interviews with leading women in our industry and provides an update on Albourne’s Diversity & Inclusion initiatives.” 

Committed to improving the Alternatives Industry, some of Albourne’s key initiatives are:

• Investor Manifesto I & II: In October 2013, Albourne launched the Investor Manifesto, a 10-point plan, recommending areas for improvement in hedge fund reporting standards, disclosures to investors, documentation and governance. Subsequently, in October 2018, Albourne published Investor Manifesto II, which is a 50-point reference document of interesting ideas across all alternatives, spanning 10 general themes that Albourne plans to discuss with investors, industry bodies, investment managers and financial regulators.
• The Shape of Fees: Albourne has been leading efforts to promote fee transparency and encourage better-alignment of fee terms to achieve a more consistent and fair share of returns between investment managers and investors. Central to this initiative has been to encourage a dialogue between investors and investment managers on the “shape of fees”. One example is Albourne's development of the “1-or-30” fee structure, which we also refer to as “X-or-Y”. Albourne recognizes that one size does not fit all, and thus, advocates for a transparent range of economically-equivalent fee “shapes” to meet the wide and varied mandates of investors.
• Open Protocol: This is an industry-accepted, consistent reporting template for managers’ risk and exposure information, created to encourage transparency and to enable investors to aggregate exposure information at the portfolio level. Open Protocol is a template that standardizes how investment managers convey risk information. Albourne helped launch Open Protocol in August 2011 and is co-chair of its Working Group.

Will Bryant of Albourne reflects on beneficial changes that would help evolve ESG and give greater value to the field

Plenty has been written over the recent months and years regarding the increasing amounts of capital being allocated to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investment strategies. This has come about on the back of increased investor focus due several different drivers, including a shift of capital to younger generations and increased public and media pressure.

Alongside this there have been several articles on the different approaches to ESG investing. These range from simple screens and tilting strategies, whether exclusionary or positive targeted methods, to integrated approaches where ESG factors are embedded within the investment process, using active engagement as an added tool to further enhance positive change. Thematic and impact investing are included in this spectrum, where measurement of the environmental and social goals is a key output.

These different approaches to the inclusion of ESG or ‘non-financial’ data into the investment process will vary based on the characteristics of the investment strategy or the portfolio manager’s belief in the efficacy of ESG integration. Whatever the approach, one thing that has become increasingly clear in conversations with investors and managers, is that the integration of ESG data in the investment space is here to stay. Investors are increasingly demanding ESG inclusion, asset managers are developing ways to integrate ESG into their processes, and corporates are beginning to grasp the potential long-term security valuation benefits of embedding ESG into their business.

Despite the demand for ESG, one key area is holding back further integration. The lack of standardized non-financial data provided by corporates is the main hurdle for many fund managers to be able to easily integrate ESG into their investment strategies; the proliferation of questionnaires with different approaches is also a growing burden for corporates.

Albourne sits at the intersection of investors and alternative asset managers. From this position we have seen the development of the trends for ever increasing ESG integration and the issues that both fund managers and investors face when focusing on ESG in their processes. Along with the rigorous Investment, Quantitative and Operational Due Diligence Albourne currently completes on alternative funds, Albourne conducts a review of their ESG capabilities. Albourne has integrated ESG into its operational due diligence of fund managers to complement its existing ESG questionnaire, and subsequent report, through which Albourne has been gathering and conveying a manager’s approach to ESG integration for over eight years.

To further widen ESG integration Albourne is looking to promote and support efforts to move towards a standardized approach to data production as part of Albourne Investor Manifesto II, launched in 2018.

Texas Employees Retirement System, Austin, rehired Albourne as hedge fund consultant,a webcast of the pension fund's board meeting Wednesday showed.

The $28.7 billion pension fund issued an RFP in March as part of the normal process of putting the services up for bid every few years. ERS' general investment consultant NEPC was the other finalist.

Texas ERS originally hired Albourne as its first hedge fund consultant in 2011.

Separately, the pension fund returned a net 5.3% for the year ended June 30, below its policy benchmark return of 6.1%. For the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, ERS returned an annualized net 9.2%, 6.2% and 8.9%, respectively, compared to their respective policy benchmark returns of 8.7%, 5.9% and 8.9%.

The ranks of pure-play alternative investment consulting firms are thinning as the consulting industry consolidates and firms add money management to their services, a trend that winnows investors' choices and opens up consultants to potential conflicts of interest. Faced with increasing competition from general investment consultants and pressure from asset owners to reduce fees, alternative investment consultants are adjusting by merging with other consulting firms or augmenting services with higher-profit money management and managing discretionary assets.

A review of Preqin's top 20 list of nondiscretionary investment consultants and Pensions & Investments' database revealed only two pure-play alternative investment consultants that do not manage capital: Albourne Partners Ltd. and TorreyCove Capital Partners LLC.

As part of the $56.5 billion Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association’s search process earlier this year for a specialty investment consultant for hedge funds, illiquid credit and real assets, the Pasadena, Calif.-based pension fund scored bidders on potential conflicts of interest. LACERA in March hired Albourne Partners Ltd. as the best fit. Albourne had scored the highest of three finalists based on a number of factors that also included fees and services offered. Among its strengths, LACERA officials noted that Albourne was solely focused on alternative investments and that it had the least potential conflicts because it has a pure non-discretionary advisory model. The other two finalists derived a portion of their income from discretionary clients.

Please refer to the full article for further details. 

Albourne Partners is expanding its focus on environmental, social and governance factors by incorporating ESG into its broader operational due diligence process.

The consultant, which oversees over $500bn in alternative advisory assets, has some 75 staff dedicated to ODD, who will now start asking all managers they review about their approach to ESG. The ODD team will focus on how hedge fund managers incorporate ESG across various metrics, including operational set-up and resources.

Following the insurance losses from catastrophic events worldwide in 2017 and 2018, the Standards Board for Alternative Investments (SBAI), whose members include both managers and institutional investors in alternative investments, has published “Valuation of Insurance-Linked Funds”, a document that provides guidance for investors conducting due diligence on funds that invest in (re)insurance-linked investments (“ILS Funds”). The document, developed by a working group of institutional investors, investment managers, and investment consultants – including Albourne Partners – is the first in a series of Toolbox Memos on ILS Funds to be published by the SBAI.

Michael Hamer, Partner and Senior Analyst at Albourne Partners, said: “The process for valuing reinsurance investments is a very important aspect of due diligence, given the high levels of uncertainty that can arise after large loss events. Investors also need to understand the differing ways in which funds deal with this uncertainty, including the use of side pockets and other mechanisms that may reduce the risk of unintentional value transfers between investors. We look forward to contributing to the SBAI’s future work in this important area of investment.”

Members of the SBAI ILS Working Group include representatives from Aberdeen Standard Investments, Albourne Partners, CPPIB, Elementum Advisors, Future Fund, Hiscox Re-insurance Linked Strategies, Nephila Capital, PGGM, PIMCO and Varma. The Toolbox Memo can be accessed here.