October 22, 2024
The Long View—a series from GEM’s Co-CIO, Matt Bank— explores a range of topics relevant to the fiduciaries and allocators of institutional capital.
In Part I of his three-part series on the Endowment Model, Co-CIO Matt Bank argued that the Endowment Model is better thought of as a set of investment principles than a recipe to be followed. Merely replicating the asset allocation of Yale’s Investment Office or another leading institutional investor has always been an unlikely path to success for the average investor. Nevertheless, blaming the model for the disappointing performance of institutional funds over the last decade-and-a-half has become sport.
Active management in any form is, for the most part, doomed in aggregate.
But that’s not the whole story.
In Part II of the series, Bank unpacks the flawed quantitative arguments often used by the Model’s detractors in assessing endowment performance and presents a better framework for evaluating long-term success.
Head of Venture Capital, Kate Simpson, joined David Weisburd on the How I Invest podcast to share how GEM evaluates venture managers and builds conviction through disciplined sourcing, rigorous reference work, and thoughtful fund-level underwriting in an increasingly bifurcated market.
In our 2026 Outlook, the GEM team explores the key forces driving today’s evolving market cycle, from AI-led capital spending to shifting dynamics in private markets, biotech, and real estate, and what they mean for positioning in the year ahead.
In this edition of The Long View, Co-CIO Matt Bank explains why managing risk with structure, discipline, and flexibility is essential for long-term investors, and how GEM’s approach helps portfolios endure uncertainty.
Let’s start a conversation about how we can help.
