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With the rising interest rates and media speculation around the level of credit spreads, corporate bond investors are reminded of the 2013 taper tantrum when credit spreads widened. For investors concerned about increased market volatility, allocating to a rules-based ladder strategy may provide both predictable income and capital preservation.

When portfolios don’t deliver outcomes as expected, the number one question is “Why?” In this Risk Report, the answers are provided through an examination of more than 200 institutional equity portfolios, representing more than $200 billion assets. What was discovered may surprise you. From a portfolio’s exposure to uncompensated risks to the performance-hindering “cancellation effect,” there were six common drivers of unexpected portfolio results.

Monitoring concentration in investment managers is an important component of portfolio risk management. While portfolio-level analysis on liquidity, beta, and volatility are frequently monitored, a minority of investment teams use active risk to size managers. By considering the return profile of a manager along with its size in the portfolio, active risk provides additional insight to risk management decisions, helps build better portfolios, and contributes to better governance.

Is the Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) market dimming? Not likely. Even as the SPAC market takes a breather from its hypersonic acceleration in early 2021, new funders are stepping into the picture. In this webcast, the presenters examined the SPAC environment, evolving deal structures, participants, and risks, as well as important federal regulation changes.

The Biden administration has unveiled a new $2 trillion infrastructure and economic recovery plan, the American Jobs Plan, which is designed to simultaneously revitalize the country’s infrastructure and combat climate change. The Plan will also give municipal investors an opportunity to focus on environmental or “green” project opportunities that range from investing in mass transportation to cleaner energy and water to climate-adaptive infrastructure.

Research has convincingly shown that having diversity of opinions and backgrounds is positively correlated with better decision-making and long-term results. In this two-part series, a deep dive looks at what it means to incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) into your investment program. First, we lay out why DEI initiatives are rapidly becoming a feature of investment programs and how they lead to better performance.

While implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has benefits in all walks of life, the investment marketplace is a highly impactful arena for driving DEI outcomes. After the first part of this series on DEI initiatives leading to better performance, a case is made for how pursuing the DEI effects is both a compelling and necessary strategy for investors.

For many investors, the desire to own commodities stems from the asset class’s inflation-hedging or portfolio-diversifying characteristics. While the most common way to get commodity exposure is by investing in a portfolio of commodity futures, many investors believe that owning a portfolio of natural resource stocks is an easier solution.

Investors occasionally look to their municipal bond portfolio for loss-harvesting opportunities that reduce the impact of capital gains taxes on portfolio returns. Learn how an active tax-loss management strategy ensures year-round performance, maximizes tax alpha, and minimizes costs.

In this year’s newly enhanced report, North Sky dives deeper into a representative selection of its impact private equity and sustainable infrastructure investments, highlighting companies and projects that align with UN Sustainable Development Goals 3, 11 and 12 and showcasing the firm’s ninth impact fund, National Impact Fund, which forms part of the Low Income Communities investment initiative that North Sky launched in 2019.