An analysis of the effects of asset allocation and spending policies on the intergenerational equity of college and university endowment funds.

摘要

The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether colleges and universities with endowment funds with market values of ;Fund Evaluation Group, a nationally recognized investment-consulting firm whose client base includes a large number of colleges and universities nationwide calculated a conservative, moderate, and aggressive expected return and standard deviation for each survey participant who provided a usable target asset allocation policy statement by utilizing the firm's capital market research and proprietary asset allocation model.;The study found that when moderate capital market assumptions are utilized, roughly 79% of the institutions that provided usable data were employing asset allocation and spending policies that will diminish the purchasing power of their endowment funds on a real basis. The purchasing power of the endowment funds of participating institutions were, on average, being diminished annually by −0.90% when moderate capital market assumptions were utilized. Therefore, the study concluded that the majority of institutions that participated in this study were not developing asset allocation and spending policies that are intergenerationally neutral. Instead, the study concluded that the majority of institutions were developing investment policy statements that benefit current students and scholars at the expense of future beneficiaries.