CFA Institute Launches Asset Owner Survey

CFA Institute, together with the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS®) Asset Owner Subcommittee, has created a survey of asset owners to learn how they manage assets, report performance, and consider the GIPS standards when doing so. The survey asks asset owners about performance-related topics, such as total fund, asset class, and benchmark returns; treatment of illiquid assets, fees, and externally managed assets; reporting to the board; and if they require, or inquire about, GIPS compliance when selecting external managers.

The goals of the 2024 survey are to update the information learned from the survey done in 2020 by the United States Investment Performance Committee (USIPC), expand the reach from the United States to global, and learn more about additional performance-related topics. As we did in 2020, we will create a report analyzing our findings to share with the industry.

In the 2020 survey, the focus was mainly on the GIPS standards. For example, we learned that most asset owners recognize the benefit of having external managers claim compliance with GIPS standards. Demanding compliance makes manager searches and requests for proposal (RFPs) more efficient because only those firms that have designed and implemented policies and procedures to fairly present their past performance will pass the initial screen.

More than 20% of asset owners require GIPS compliance when selecting all external managers, and almost 8% require it for some but not all of their external managers. Combined with the 38.5% of asset owners that ask about GIPS compliance, more than two-thirds (67.3%) of asset owners ask about GIPS compliance when selecting external managers.

The GIPS Standards for Asset Owners were fairly new in 2020. We were very pleased to see, however, that almost 21% of those surveyed said they claimed compliance and another 7.6% were in the process of claiming compliance or were planning to comply. We are eager to learn whether more asset owners now consider GIPS compliance in their external manager hiring process and if they themselves are complying or considering complying.

We welcome participation from all asset owners, whether your organization does or does not claim compliance with the GIPS standards. The survey is open through September 30 2024. We look forward to learning more about current practices globally to determine how best to support asset owners when calculating and presenting performance. The survey should take no more than 15 minutes to complete.