Fund News Advisors Can Use: Target-Date Funds Come Under Fire With Congress In this week s fund news, two congressional leaders put target-date funds under scrutiny, Yale s endowment head David Swensen dies, and Alger launches a new semi-transparent active ETF.
Two congressional committee chairs sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office this week, calling for a review of target-date funds. The letter, written by Robert “Bobby” Scott, chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, and Patty Murray, chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, argues that while TDFs are marketed as “set it and forget it” investments, the funds can vary widely in risk allocations and expenses.
Yale Chief Investment Officer Dies at 67
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Yale University’s chief investment officer, David Swensen, died Wednesday at the age of 67.
Swensen, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2012, is recognized as a pioneer in investing and endowment management. Several other wealthy universities hired talent from his Yale investment office to manage their own endowments, and a 2015
Wall Street Journalanalysis found that Swensen or one of his protégés controlled $1 of every $6 in U.S. higher education endowments.
Under Swensen, Yale followed what came to be known as the Yale model an investing strategy that reduced focus on stocks and especially bonds in favor of a diversified portfolio including alternative investments like hedge funds and real estate.
David Swensen, the pioneer of Yale who remodeled investments
On monday David Swensen despite a long battle with cancer he gave a regular class on investing at his beloved Yale University. Two days later, he finally managed to make some of the biggest money he did, 67 years old.
The investment industry has produced more than just direct and ruthless tycoons, unfortunate failures, and foolish fraudsters. In Swensen (who has run a $ 31 billion endowment for his alma mater since 1985), he had a rare asceticism when he transformed the seemingly wealthless management of the industry.
“They are great painters who change how others paint, just like Picasso. David Swensen has changed the way everyone involved in investing thinks about investing, ”he says. Charles Ellis, He directed Yale’s endowment between 1997 and 2008.
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David Swensen was one of the world s greatest investors, but he s not a household name. And that s because, while he made billions, they weren t for himself. They were for Yale University s endowment, and he showed many other schools how to do the same thing. Swensen died this week at the age of 67 from cancer. NPR s Chris Arnold interviewed him many times and has this remembrance.
CHRIS ARNOLD, BYLINE: David Swensen grew Yale s endowment from $1 billion in 1985 to 31 billion last year. With skills like that, he could have made himself fabulously wealthy. But after an early career on Wall Street, Swensen came back to Yale, where he d gotten his Ph.D. in economics, to take charge of its investments. I spoke to him about that in 2006.
According to former colleagues and friends, few institutional investors have been as influential as David Swensen.
The longtime Yale University investment chief died at age 67 on Wednesday after a long battle with cancer, the school’s president announced on Thursday. Those who knew him say he leaves behind a legacy of pioneering investment management and enduring mentorship that will live on for years to come.
“It is a day of grief but also a day of gratitude,” Anne Martin, chief investment officer at Wesleyan University and a former Yale Investments Office director, said via email Thursday. “David had such a huge impact on the world and that’s something we should all be grateful for.”