The Investment Subcommittee of the Finance and Facilities Committee of the Board of Trustees is responsible for executing the Pooled Endowment Investment Policy requirements, including the hiring of an external investment manager. The Investment Subcommittee has retained Cerity Partners as its external investment manager/outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) to provide day-to-day management of an increasingly diverse, global, and complex investment portfolio on a discretionary basis within the confines of Puget Sound’s Pooled Endowment Investment Policy.
Cerity Partners OCIO serves as a co-fiduciary with the board of trustees for the Endowment, providing careful, disciplined stewardship and continuous oversight that includes strategic and tactical management of the investment portfolio. Puget Sound’s arrangement with Cerity Partners provides the university with extensive expertise, disciplined due diligence, and access to top tier investment managers in a commingled investment strategy. Commingled investment funds consist of assets from several investors that are combined under a common investment management strategy to enable investors to benefit from economies of scale, which allow for lower trading costs and lower underlying manager fees, greater diversification, and a wider selection of professional investment managers that are often available to only much larger endowments.
- The Puget Sound portfolio incorporates environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into investment decisions.
- ESG factors are part of our investment process.
- The Board’s Investment Subcommittee thoroughly considers ESG or impact for each investment under review.
- We incorporate best practices from industry organizations like the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment.