Insights

Chestnut conducts market research among hundreds of investors and consultants on an ongoing basis to understand current concerns and marketplace trends. We publish our research regularly and speak at many leading industry events. We also host exclusive Chestnut events for our clients.

Your Performance Doesn’t Really Matter

What Successful Managers Do Differently

We wanted to understand why so many outstanding asset managers are finding asset growth increasingly difficult. So we reviewed investment performance and asset flow data for 931 asset managers over a seven year period, and conducted a survey of institutional investors controlling $429 billion of capital. The surprising answers to our query explain exactly what successful asset managers do differently.

Recent Research

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The Chestnut Solutions Institute hosted a public webinar with three leading OCIO search consultant as part of the Institute's mission to help...

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As the OCIO market continues to expand with an ever-wider range of providers and capabilities to choose from, investors are increasingly...

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Chestnut's Ravi Venkataraman discusses key issues facing the OCIO and Solutions Industry with Lisa Shalett, Chief Investment Officer at Morgan...

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Both solutions providers and investors are challenged by the industry’s current lack of standards, norms and transparency

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Increasingly, what investors want are holistic solutions to help them achieve their investment goals.  As a result, the solutions industry is...

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Samantha Davidson of Mercer joins us to discuss the top factors creating world-class, client-centered solutions, and how Mercer has implemented...

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Back to Basics: Client Experience Investment managers beginning the 2023 business year are facing the continuation of an intensely turbulent...

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Steve Charlton of NEPC joins us to discuss research and insights around how to cultivate trust with investors and consultants, an activity that...

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Our research confirms trust as the single most important factor driving the decision to fire an asset managers and highlights concrete steps managers can take to actively cultivate trust with investors to build their business.

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OCIOs like Callan are on the 'front lines' today, helping investors determine how best to address DEI and ESG factors in their investment...

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P&I hosts DEI experts from Chestnut, The CFA Institute, and Verus to discuss how investor segments prioritize DEI, obstacles to improving...

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In this report we explore how asset managers and OCIOs can use allocators' calls for better understanding of their DEI efforts as an enormous...

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In this article we use our recent market research as a basis to explore how asset managers can best navigate rapidly-evolving investor demands to...

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With Meredith Jones of Aon and Chris Waterhouse of T. Rowe Price, we discuss the new necessity of having an authentic, integrated ESG policy....

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OCIO is the fastest-growing asset management segment today.  We discuss our latest research findings with Ed Bardowski of Aon, one of the largest...

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OCIO is the fastest-growing asset management segment today.  We examine the trends driving this growth and discuss steps asset managers and OCIOs...

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Global OCIO AUM topped $2.4 trillion this year. In this webinar, we reveal our forecast for 2026. Sharing insights from our research, our...

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M&A among investment firms is a strategy intended to drive profitable growth. In this article, we examine the trends motivating these deals...

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We discuss our Future of Investments research on investment firm M&A with leaders from Mercer (Keith Mote) and TIAA (Javier Enrile). Industry...

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As the investment industry faces unprecedented challenges, Chestnut and P&I partnered to conduct comprehensive research into the issues...

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Distribution leaders Sydney McConathy, Head of Business Development at Hancock Natural Resource Group and Dominica Ribeiro, Chief Marketing...

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Chris Philips, Head of Vanguard’s OCIO business, discusses how he has navigated his team over the last year, through the transition to an...

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CIBC Asset Management manages more than $100B in retail assets and is one of the largest subadvisory platforms in Canada, with more than $30B of...

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Amanda and Simon talk with David Pappalardo of Segal Marco about best practices for managers who seek to gain the attention of retail...

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Retail assets are expected to grow at nearly twice the rate of institutional assets over the next 5 years.  The globally-recognized investment...

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Matthew Wright of Disciplina and Joe Halwax of Wespath share timely insights into how their firms select asset managers for their clients'...

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Stephen Beinhacker, SEI's Global Head of Manager Research, discusses many aspects of SEI's manager research and the firm's unique business model...

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Although retail is the fastest-growing segment of the investment marketplace, massive recent changes have asset managers scrambling to adjust to...

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Andy Kitchen and John Forrest of Russell Investments join Chestnut's Simon Segall and Elyse Goodman to discuss their approach to client service...

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When we saw the COVID-19 crisis beginning to upend the capital markets, we turned to consultants and OCIOs to gain a clearer understanding of the...

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Chris Philips, Head of Institutional Advisory Services at Vanguard, shares with us key elements in the evolution of Vanguard's rapidly-growing...

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Goldman's $143B Global Portfolio Solutions business has grown rapidly via a compelling mix of build and buy strategies. Greg Calnon, who has been...

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Asset managers seeking to grow their business today are facing a brave new world. Due to the COVID pandemic, investors' needs and interests have...

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David Eisenberg rejoined Cambridge Associates in December 2019 as an OCIO in the firm's pension practice. In this webinar, he discusses: Is the...

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We share our insights from investors regarding best practices for asset managers today. Now is the time for managers to retain clients and build trust so that they can accelerate growth when crisis abates.

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We partnered with Pensions & Investments to determine what institutional investors want most from investment manager content today. Our research reveals steps managers can take – and mistakes they can avoid
– in their ongoing efforts to educate investors.

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Chestnut recently held a discussion with Blackstone’s Head of Private Wealth Solutions Joan Solotar to understand how the firm is navigating the rapidly changing retail distribution landscape. We believe Blackstone’s retail growth strategy and tactics embody best practices that, when implemented thoughtfully and carefully, can successfully drive growth at any asset manager.

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Severe disruption across the asset management industry is driving managers to pursue new distribution strategies. Our research indicates that the most successful asset managers are taking an increasingly marketing-led approach to distribution.

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Asset managers spend enormous resources regularly populating over 40 manager databases in hopes of screening well and gaining more AUM. Our research reveals how managers can improve their database efforts, better positioning them to win new business.

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After spending enormous resources crafting a message designed to resonate with investors, managers face a second hurdle: getting their message heard. Although investors tell us they feel overwhelmed with information, our research shows that few manager messages reach their targets as intended. We’ve identified the best approach to ensure investors actually hear what you have to say.

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The rapidly evolving OCIO market has created new opportunities and risks for asset managers. We spoke with leading industry experts to help identify the best way for managers to make the most of this growing opportunity.

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Our latest research reveals that trust and understanding drive consultant recommendations. Asset managers must create a world class investor communications effort to gain that trust.

We’ve outlined just what types of communications consultants are looking for from asset managers’ and how you can best position your firm for success.

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Our latest research among institutional investors reveals that once hired, asset managers go silent on fees; most investors also lose focus on this important topic. Investors’ resulting ignorance about their managers’ value proposition leaves managers vulnerable to misunderstanding that can lead to termination.

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Asset managers are increasingly inundating allocators with thought leadership in hopes of growing their business. Allocators tell us most of these ‘insights’ are not helpful. To determine the key elements of truly great thought leadership we conducted research among over 100 institutional investors and consultants, as well as over 50 asset managers.

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We wanted to understand why the biggest managers keep gaining market share from everyone else. So we reviewed investment performance and asset flow data for 931 asset managers over seven years, and conducted a survey of institutional investors controlling $429 billion of capital. The surprising answers are detailed in this white paper.