SIS Services

Specialties

We specialize in strategic planning, especially asset allocation and liability analysis and manager structure analysis. Our asset/liability process is arguably the most sensible, best documented, and effectively communicated investment policy service in the industry. Our manager structure process is designed to maintain the integrity of the asset allocation targets as we integrate active management into the structure. It is approached from both a characteristic and historical return basis. Finally, our manager research effort is enhanced by our use of multiple databases and by the experience and reputation of our consultants in the investment management community.

Strengths

We believe that our most important asset is the combined experience of our consultants in working with large funds over numerous market cycles. We translate this experience into an integrated approach to investment consulting. Our disciplined, but flexible, process covers the three critical areas of fund administration: strategic planning and asset allocation, plan implementation and performance evaluation. We offer superior quantitative resources, particularly in the fields of asset allocation and liability modeling, manager structure optimization, and performance attribution. Our internal research covers the full spectrum of asset classes, with the exception of real estate, in which we do not specialize. We are highly experienced in evaluating domestic and international investment strategies in the public and private markets.

• Our investment consulting professionals have many years of experience working with some of the largest, most sophisticated institutional investors in the marketplace.
   
• Our low client-to-consultant ratio allows our senior consulting professionals to work very closely with their consulting clients; we do not delegate this function to inexperienced or junior staff.
   
• Our clients have a clear understanding of the importance of asset allocation, capital market assumptions, portfolio efficiency, and liability integration; they participate actively in the decision.
   
• We approach manager structure from both a characteristic and historical return basis, avoiding the current debate while providing alternatives when the two tools “disagree.” Our manager structures are constructed to preserve and enhance the index proxies used in the asset allocation work.
   
• Knowledge of the investment manager community is strong due to hundreds of meetings conducted by our manager research staff annually and search activity.
   
• We get the best out of our clients’ managers, primarily through effective communication, tough fee negotiations, reviewing dispersion from composite results and seasoned, thoughtful handling of problematic situations (i.e., protracted underperformance and organizational instability).
   
• We save our clients money by identifying cost savings potential and negotiating significant discounts.
   
• Our capital market forecasts are robust and developed through a rigorous, disciplined process.
   
• Avoidance of any and all conflicts-of-interest. Pure client advocacy in dealing with all of your vendors. Our only source of revenue is that derived from providing advice to fund sponsors such as the Vaccine Fund. Your current or future managers do not need to buy services from SIS to be treated fairly and objectively.

Limitations

• We do not hold conferences that bring all our clients together for educational purposes. Rather, client interaction and education is on an individual basis.
   
• We currently do not have a real estate consulting capability. Additionally, we do not source single-strategy hedge funds for our clients.
   
• Our face-to-face manager research efforts are focused on managers who have delivered competitive or better than average results and manage reasonable amounts of money in the product under consideration. This research is augmented by an Emerging Manager effort. Thus, we are not focusing our primary research resources on two segments (small and underperforming) of the management community.