Conventional Investing vs the Endowment Model

Recently, members of the Brandes Institute Advisory Board discussed the approach to investing popularised by David Swensen of the Yale Endowment and others in that sector during the mid-1980s, and hence generally known as the Endowment Model. By moving away from a traditional 60% equity/40% bond portfolio and adding exposure to other asset classes such as private equity, hedge funds and venture capital funds, many proponents delivered better absolute and risk-adjusted returns over traditional approaches.