Diversifying Your Asset Managers

Diverse asset managers are severely underrepresented among the managers hired by institutional investors. Studies demonstrate that funds managed by diverse asset managers often yield greater performance results for their clients than the broader market. While there is a critical mass of high performing diverse asset managers, there is an inadequate demand for their services.

The Diverse Asset Managers Initiative (DAMI) is an effort to increase the absolute number of, and assets under management by, diverse-owned asset management firms for institutional investors, with specific focus on public, corporate, faith and labor union pension funds as well as foundation and university endowments. 

The initiative will focus on educating and raising awareness with key decision makers at public, corporate, faith and labor union pension funds as well as foundation and university endowments about the supply of high performing, diverse asset managers. We will share studies about the inadequate demand for diverse asset managers by institutional investors despite the number of existing high performers. We will urge the decision makers to proactively address the barriers that prevent them from diversifying the set of managers overseeing their funds.The initiative will partner with investment consultants to educate them about the opportunity to diversify existing pools of investment managers that they recommend to their institutional clients and help them to meet their fiduciary responsibilities to their clients. Finally, we will market, network and connect the high- performing world of diverse asset managers with the more traditional investing community.