White Papers
Home : White Papers : [48-30], [29-20], [19-10], [9-1]
As an open architecture firm, Greycourt’s only stock-in-trade is our intellectual capital. It is therefore important that Greycourt represent the cutting edge in every area that will have
an important effect on the growth of our clients’ wealth. We happily share our knowledge with investors via our series of Greycourt White Papers. Although the white papers are not written with any specific client in
mind, we believe that many of the issues addressed in these papers may be of interest to affluent families and demanding institutional investors.
White Paper No. 48: Best Practices Trusts
In White Paper No. 48, we recommend that families who use trusts (or who are considering establishing trusts) evaluate the advantages of “unbundling” the activities that have historically been bundled into one product by the trust industry. In other words, instead of settling for mediocre, bundled trust services, families should unbundle them and engage the best providers available for all their trust needs: fiduciary, asset management, custody, tax, administration.
White Paper No. 47: The Real State of Real Estate
White Paper No. 47 describes the current real estate environment and provides investors with a road map to identify and evaluate potential opportunities in the sector. As everyone knows, market gyrations over the past eighteen months have affected all asset classes, real estate included. Values of real property assets across all sectors have been affected, most notably in the residential housing sector (happening now) and core commercial real estate (just about to happen). There are clearly opportunities in the real estate market today, but those opportunities are mixed in with a far greater number of challenges, and many investors are puzzled as to how to take advantage of this environment without getting burned. In White Paper No. 47, Greycourt Director Eric Haskel attempts to cut through the noise and to suggest opportunities that seem appropriate on a risk-adjusted basis.
White Paper No. 47A: Investing in Real Property - A Primer
We recognize that many investors may not be familiar with real estate as a core part of an investment portfolio, and so we are also enclosing White Paper No. 47A - Investing in Real Property - A Primer, also written by Eric. This paper defines real estate, describes the risks and opportunities associated with investing in the asset class, and outlines various ways of gaining access to real estate, depending on the size of the investment and the experience of the investor.
White Paper No. 46: Is It Different This Time?
During extraordinary market conditions of all kinds – good and bad – it is usual to hear people say, “It’s different this time.” Of course, every market environment is different from every other market environment, but what these people are saying is that market conditions today are so exceptional, so completely unprecedented, that investors will need to reassess everything they thought they knew about the investment process – or face serious consequences.
White Paper No. 45: Secondary Investing in Private Equity
Given the high interest in private equity secondary funds today, Greycourt managing director David Lovejoy has prepared Greycourt White Paper No. 45 - Secondary Investing in Private Equity. In this paper, David examines some of the key elements of secondary investing, placing moneys with secondary fund managers and provides a framework for evaluating these managers.
White Paper No. 44: The Financial Crisis and the Collapse of Ethical Behavior
Most assessments of the financial crisis that began in August of 2007 identify as the source of the problem such issues as poor risk controls, too much leverage, and an almost willful blindness to the bubble-like conditions in the housing market. Well, maybe.
White Paper No. 43: Credit Crunch Q & A
Presented as a series of questions and answers, we explore what a credit crunch is, why it happened, how it morphed into the mess we find ourselves in today, and what investors ought to be doing about it in their portfolios.
White Paper No. 42: Global Investing: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?
In this paper we investigate the case for global investing, examine why it is that so many American investors underweight foreign stocks, and suggest a sensible middle ground between true global investing and the current home country bias that infects most portfolios.
White Paper No. 41: Our "Friend of the Investor" Brief
Departing from our usual format, we have fashioned this white paper as a faux amicus curiae brief as if it were being filed with the Supreme Court of the United States. In fact, this white paper is really an amicus opes ("Friend of the Investor") brief in which we are commenting not-too-subtly on the various court decisions regarding deductibility of investment costs. Though our remarks are presented with a humorous edge, the consequence for investors is no laughing matter!
White Paper No. 40: Private Equity Investing
Although private equity investing is not without its challenges, long-term historic returns argue strongly for exposure to this asset class for most significant investors. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the opportunities in private equity investing, identify the key risks, and outline a strategy for investing in private equity sensibly and profitably. This paper will be most useful to investors seeking to invest approximately $50 million or less in a diversified private equity portfolio.
White Paper No. 39: Auditing Alternative Investments
The purpose of this paper is to review the background behind the AICPA Practice Aid, to examine some of the mischief that implementation of the Aid has caused, and to speculate about how the auditors’ approach might be modified to improve both the quality of audits and the quality of investment portfolios.
White Paper No. 38: Open Architecture as a Disruptive Business Model
This paper examines the impact that open architecture has had on the financial services industry.
White Paper No. 37: Investing in Oil & Gas
Energy is a topic that is on the minds of
many investors these days. The enclosed white paper, “Investing in Oil & Gas,” is a primer on the techniques, opportunities and pitfalls available to investors looking at investments in the oil and gas industry.
We hope you enjoy it and find it useful.
White Paper No. 36: 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.
White Paper No. 35: Investment Performance Reporting: Just the facts, Ma'am
Because a portfolio's performance is often imperfectly understood, the challenge of proper monitoring can be difficult. In this white paper, we set forth the key facts about the process of performance reporting and
describe its major challenges and possible solutions.
White Paper No. 34: Portable Alpha Strategies
This paper explains what portable alpha strategies are and why they
are important, but also identifies a series of important challenges associated with employing portable alpha strategies in real-world portfolios.
White Paper No. 33: 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.
White Paper No. 32: 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.
White Paper No. 31 – 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.
White Paper No. 30 – The Tax on Dividends: Speculations On How Taxation Changes Might Affect Investor Strategies
Speculation has heightened that the Bush administration will seek to reduce or eliminate the double taxation of dividends paid on corporate stocks. While the form and substance of such a policy are yet unclear it
would, if enacted, impact private client portfolios in several significant ways. Most obviously, reducing or eliminating the taxes levied on dividends would improve equities’ after-tax total returns relative to
other non-affected asset classes such as bonds or alternative assets. In this paper we will initially seek to illustrate how a typical investor’s recommended asset allocation might change if the elimination of taxes
on dividends were to become a reality. Second, it is likely that such a tax law change would indirectly impact other asset classes and alter the behavior of corporate management.
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