Pioneering Portfolio Management: An Unconventional Approach to Institutional Investment, Fully Revised and Updated Hardcover – January 6, 2009

Swensen's book is a must-read for endowment managers and other institutional investors, particularly those who take a fund-of-funds approach (as does Yale, where Swensen is Chief Investment Officer). Swensen aptly lays out the investment policy that has enabled Yale to consistently outperform other U.S. endowments. As Yale's CIO, Swensen has set a target portfolio allocation that departs significantly from the still heavily U.S. equity and debt-focused strategy of most endowments. Swensen's approach includes a large allocation to asset classes that are not highly correlated to the U.S. public equity market. He outlines these "alternative" classes in his book, giving the reader an excellent view of how alternative investments can increase risk-adjusted portfolio returns.Perhaps the biggest contribution of Swensen's book, however, is the debunking of myths that still lull fiducaries into making the wrong decisions, for example when it comes to picking investment managers. Swensen advises against chasing managers who have performed well simply because of their past performance. If attributes such as personal integrity and the right fee structure are lacking, solid past performance can become a liability, not an asset. Swensen describes the example of private equity firm KKR-- after tremendous early successes, the flood of investor capital into KKR enabled the firm's partners to set up a fee structure that ensured big payoffs for themselves even if their funds underperformed. This is just one of many valuable lessons the reader will draw from Swensen's book.

This is an excellent resource. In the Kindle version, I believe there is an error in table 4.4. It appears the data in the columns "Third Quartile" and "Range" are switched. For example, in the row U.S. fixed income, the data for Third Quartile is 0.5% and the data under Range is 6.9%. I believe this data is switched, and should read Third Quartile = 6.9% and Range = 0.5%. I believe the same is true for the rest of the data for these two columns. My opinion is supported by the subsequent discussion in the text, where the author indicates the range between first and third quartile returns for fixed income managers is 0.5%. I could not find a forum to provide this feedback, hence it is here. I hope this information is useful.

This is an excellent book about the workings of an institutional portfolio and the various influences pulling at investment decisions.Lots of good anecdotal stories of mis-steps by *other* institutions. I would love to hear about some mistakes that DS has made during his tenure.He deals implicitly w/ agency issues that exist in most money management situations. For a more detailed explication of agency conflicts, read, "Unconventional Success".He attributes a lot of manager success to luck. However, how much of DS's and Yale's success is due to luck? He does not subject his own performance (that of managing the managers) to any sort of benchmark.Finally, he gives very short shrift to the back-office and operational issues (1 page at the end of the book). This is the achilles heel of 80% of management firms. They cannot scale, control, and maintain quality as they grow. This is the same, "Its all in the front office" mentality that presages so many other stumbles into mediocrity (not blow ups - just a benign drift downwards in rankings). I hope this same fate does not befall DS and Yale.

Swensen made a mark in investing by investing long term in illiquid alternative assets.He shows that long term investors can do very well as long as they do their homework and be patient.I agree with Swensen's model, which is adopted by many endowments and family offices.However, one caveat of his model is the consideration of cost. When Swensen started the portfolio, alternativeinvestments were not so many and the fees were not so high. Now we have lots and lots of alternative investments, chargingquite high fees.Hence, it is important to remember that Swensen's model works given a reasonable fee structure.

Swensen's framework for Endowment Managment remains a thoughtful and clearly articulated look at institutional best practices.A key lesson of his is often overlooked. Each institution is unique, and should not attempt to copy what has been at Yale or other successful investment programs.I would love Swenson to write another book, but my best guess is it would be very similar to the original masterpiece.

Good

Swensen was one of the investing geniuses that left us way too soon. This book is a pillar for the Investment professionals. I cannot recommended enough to read it and go back often to it.

An excellent book to understanding the role of Absolute Returns and disciplined asset allocation in successful endowment portfolio management. A must-read for any junior -mid-level entrant to the field.