|
|
GREYCOURT
WHITE PAPERS
Search White Papers
|
Most Popular White Papers
Home : White Papers : Most Popular
Based upon requests from interested parties, the following are among the firm's most popular white papers. We hope you find them useful.
- A Modest Proposal: Let’s End Conflicts of Interest in the Wealth Advisory Business
The problem of financial
conflicts of interest is a perfect example of our ability to understand a concept intellectually but fail to grasp its full significance. This white paper explores examples of conflicts we knew existed, but the
consequences of which were monstrously underestimated.
- Numeracy, Innumeracy and Hard Slogging
Working from a recent speech by John C. Bogle, founder and past CEO of
The Vanguard Group, this paper demonstrates just how difficult it is for wealthy, taxable investors to grow their wealth at anything like the rates usually discussed by financial advisors.
- The Challenge of Identifying Managers Who Will Outperform
The paper examines a couple of the
principal issues associated with money managers. Specifically:
- We analyze why it is so difficult to identify best-in-class managers in time to profit by investing with them.
- We look at why it is that good past performance can be completely meaningless.
- We identify the (mainly qualitative) characteristics of best-in-class managers.
- Reinvigorating the Investment Committee: Introducing the Investment Committee Operating Manual
As a tool for
the successful management of capital, the investment committee has been a serious disappointment. This paper discusses the reasons why investment committees tend to subtract, rather than add, value and proposes
a new approach to the use of the investment committee.
- Much Ado About Bonds
Many investors have expressed alarm over the impact that rising rates may have on their
existing bond portfolios. In the enclosed white paper, Greycourt examines the impact of rate rises on bond values and evaluates several alternative strategies. We hope you find the white paper useful.
- Hedge Funds Get "Swensened”
Many investors are steering clear of hedge funds
because of recent, widely-reported scandals, lower-than-expected returns, and the drubbing hedge funds have taken from, among others, Yale's David Swensen.
In Hedge Funds Get Swensened, Greycourt
acknowledges the problems with hedge fund investing but also suggests that investors who lack a proper exposure to hedge funds or funds of funds may be shortchanging themselves
- Modern Portfolio Theory and Quantum Mechanics
The year 2002 marks the 50th anniversary of the
publication of Harry Markowitz’ seminal paper on mean variance optimization, a then-obscure event which nonetheless inaugurated what we now know as modern portfolio theory (MPT). Over the following five decades,
Markowitz and his followers have contributed enormously to our understanding of the behavior of capital markets and of the nature of risk and its relationship to investment returns. MPT has, in a broad way,
allowed us to model how markets are likely to behave over very long periods of time, and has therefore allowed us to base the design of investment portfolios on principles that are at least in some fundamental
way related to likely market behavior. For investors born after MPT concepts were incorporated into real-world investment portfolios, it’s hard to believe what a revolutionary change MPT has occasioned.
- Hedge Fund Investing: The End of the Beginning
This white paper provides an
overview of the hedge fund industry as it exists today, and identifies the myriad risks facing hedge fund investors, including the lack of transparency and an excess of capital chasing too few funds. The paper
also illustrates how diversification techniques and careful selection can mitigate these risks.
- Family Investment Partnerships
Many wealthy families are familiar with
family limited partnerships used to discount the value of intra-family gifts. But limited partnerships can also be used as investment vehicles, and this strategy offers many advantages. This white paper
discusses family investment partnerships, which represent a kind of private, family “mutual fund” for family members and other family units such as trusts or foundations.
- Soft Dollars: Greycourt’s Position
Clients, money managers, investment bankers and brokers
often ask why Greycourt adamantly refuses to accept soft dollar payments for its consulting services. This white paper explores the issue of soft dollar commissions and explains why we are opposed both to the
practice and to accepting soft dollars as part of our fee.
|
|
