Investment Philosophy

As students of history’s greatest investors, we have embraced a set of core beliefs that have stood the test of time. It has guided us in the ongoing development of our investment strategy.

In this section

Our Leaders On Stage

The Endowment Model

Core Investment Principles

Assessing Manager Performance

Sustainable Investing

Fees and Costs of Investing

Our Leaders On Stage

Arjun Raghavan on Bloomberg Markets with Sonali Basak

Our CEO, Arjun Raghavan, was recently invited to Bloomberg Markets with Sonali Basak. He commented on Partners Capital announcing a minority investment from General Atlantic and gave his insight into the current state of the private credit and private equity markets.

Introducing The Intellectual Capital Library

Our Chairman and Founder, Stan Miranda, introduces the new Intellectual Capital Library.

Alex Band on Private Markets Opportunities at SALT iConnections 2023

Hear our Chief Investment Officer, Alex Band, discuss the private investment opportunities Partners Capital is seeing right now at SALT iConnections New York 2023. Specifically, these are across three different areas – private credit, traditional private equity and buyouts, and early-stage venture capital.

Alex Band speaking on Nasdaq TradeTalks at SALT iConnections 2023

While attending SALT iConnections New York 2023, Alex Band joined Nasdaq TradeTalks’ Jill Malandrino to discuss the investment opportunities for global institutional investors. Alex discusses our view on the market, the opportunities within private credit and the importance of remaining focused on the long-term amongst short-term uncertainties with balance and diversification in portfolios.

Capital Allocators Podcast with Ted Seides: Stan Miranda - Modern Endowment Model at Partners Capital

Our Chairman and Founder, Stan Miranda, speaks to Ted Seides about the founding of Partners Capital, our investment philosophy and the evolution of our investment model from the “endowment model”. Listen on Capital Allocators Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify

CEO Arjun Raghavan shares his investment philosophy and personal insights with Money Maze Podcast

Partners Capital Chief Executive Officer Arjun Raghavan is featured on The Money Maze Podcast with Simon Brewer. Arjun shares his journey to becoming CEO of Partners Capital, which currently manages over $45 billion in assets across North America, Europe and Asia. Topics Arjun discusses include: The Money Maze Podcast is hosted by Simon Brewer, a

Partners Capital 20th Anniversary

Partners Capital Annual Investor Workshop 2019

Partners Capital Annual Investor Workshop 2018

Partners Capital Annual Investor Workshop 2017

Partners Capital Annual Investor Workshop 2016

The Endowment Model

Private Capital Podcast with Joe Reilly: Stan Miranda - Bain Meets the Yale Model at Partners Capital

Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts

Alternative Fund Insight: Alex Band on building client portfolios

Listen to the Full Podcast here: Alternative Fund Insight Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts

Partners Capital - Investment Models for Small to Mid-Sized Endowments

The Denison Model vs the Yale Model

PRMEA

Case Study: Managing a $1 billion portfolio for a prestigious US healthcare system

In 2021, Partners Capital were hired as Outsourced Chief Investment Office (OCIO) for a world-renowned, not-for-profit medical organization. Prior to working with us, the client had a relatively traditional 60% equity / 40% bond-style liquid portfolio, with no exposure to alternative investments, including private markets. The client’s Investment Committee was comprised of sophisticated and seasoned

Partners Capital Risk-Managed Endowment Approach (PRMEA)

Risk management is about knowing what you own. At the simplest level, Partners Capital’s risk management is achieved with our client portfolios through asset class and asset manager diversification and through a deep understanding of what each asset manager is doing. That is the essence of our risk management. Any insights we may have about

A Radical New Approach to the Endowment Model

Is there a more attractive alternative to the Endowment Model of Investing? Today? No. But we raise this question as the universe of high returning strategies that have little correlation with traditional financial market returns continues to expand. Five years into our pursuit of so-called ‘Alternative-Alternative’ strategies, we are close to having sufficient options to build

Partners Capital Approach to Risk Management c. 2013

Core Investment Principles

Our 7 Core Investment Principles

Partners Capital Intellectual Capital – Investment Philosophy Series First Published: January 2015; Revised November 2023

A Primer on Alternative Asset Classes

The earliest of financial investments, pre-dating traditional stocks and bonds, were investments in private companies, private property, privately negotiated debt (non-bank loans made to companies, individuals or governments) and commodities like gold, wheat and corn. These private investments came about in a widespread manner in the middle of the 19th century. In the last 100

The Most Basic Lessons of Investing

This note describes the most important learning about investing including some very basic principles and some useful tools. Many of these are rooted in fundamental academic research, and generally accepted. A few are only supported by what we believe to be compelling common sense. We would expect that the most sophisticated and successful institutional investors

Assessing Manager Performance

The Cyclicality of Manager Alpha

2016 represented a year by which active investors had crowded into virtually every corner of the investment world, exhausting any remaining pockets of inefficiency and saw more managers under-performing their benchmarks than we can recall in our 16 year history. As expected, we saw a capitulation by many capital owners who moved more of their

Technology’s Impact on Active Investing

Big Data, or the growing universe of information traversing the web, that is available to systematic and fundamental active managers is changing the competitive landscape favouring those firms best able to find and process such data into powerful investment insights. We expect the greatest alpha generation in the future to come from those fundamental managers

Cracking The Code on Manager Selection

This is an updated version of our whitepaper on what it takes to make a great investor which captures insights from legendary investors of the past as well as the next generation. The original version was written as a briefing document for three separate working dinners with distinguished asset managers, which took place in NYC,

How to Evaluate Investment Performance

Most active investment managers fail to justify their fees. Apparent outperformance is often the result of specific market risks, not manager skill. Partners Capital uses a systematic look-through risk quantification process to separate market risks from manager skill. This allows our clients to allocate capital to those managers who are most likely to generate a

Sustainable Investing

Partners Capital Energy Transition Investment Framework 2.0

This is the update to the 1st Edition published in 2022 which incorporates insights from our deep dives into many pillars of the energy transition (renewables, hydrogen, carbon taxes, CCUS, etc.). Here we quantify the extent to which the transition can progress on pure economic grounds and translate that into our six core energy transition investment

Partners Capital 2023-2024 Sustainable Investing Report

Amid a challenging macro-economic climate and swift monetary tightening, polarised debates on the role of ESG have continued. These debates, however, have had limited impact on both global sustainable investment flows and Partners Capital’s pragmatic, targeted and client specific approach to Sustainable Investing. The key areas of the 2023-2024 Sustainable Investing Report are:

Partners Capital 2024 Clean Hydrogen Investment Framework

The growth of the clean hydrogen market in the next decade is a pivotal component of the global energy transition roadmap. Therefore, a thorough and detailed evaluation of the long-term potential for clean hydrogen use becomes a crucial factor influencing investment decisions related to the energy transition. This extends beyond just the hydrogen sector. This

“COP 37 Will Be Very Interesting” – Stan Miranda on the C.O.B.T. Veriten Podcast

Partners Capital Co-Founder and Chairman Stan Miranda is featured on Veriten’s Close of Business Tuesday (C.O.B.T.) Podcast, hosted by Maynard Holt, Jeff Tillery and Mike Bradley. Stan provides a “state of the union” on the path to global energy transition and outlines Partners Capital’s investment approach. Topics discussed, include: Veriten was founded by Maynard Holt. Veriten is

Partners Capital 2022 Sustainable Investing Report

Our Partners Capital Sustainable Investing Report 2022 summarises the progress we have made and the evolution in our thinking over the last twelve months. Prompted by the war in Ukraine, 2022 was a year when unresolved questions on ESG came to the fore. These questions include how countries trade-off energy security with transition, what it

Stan Miranda discusses the Partners Capital Green Energy Transition Investment Framework on PEI’s Spotlight Podcast

Stan Miranda, Partners Capital Founder and Chairman, is featured on Private Equity International’s Spotlight Podcast with Toby Mitchenall discussing the unprecedented uncertainty of energy transition investing. Stan shares the Partners Capital Global Energy Transition Investment Framework, which breaks down the component parts of the transition and highlights where we see opportunity as well as uncertainty.

Partners Capital and the Clean Air Task Force Workshop: Bringing the Energy Transition Down to Earth

On the 14th of September 2022, Partners Capital combined with the Clean Air Task Force (CATF, an energy transition think tank) hosted a workshop lunch entitled “Bringing the Energy Transition Down to Earth” at the National Science Museum in London. The idea for the workshop emerged from our desire to gain an ever deeper set

Partners Capital 2022 Energy Transition Investment Framework

The Partners Capital Energy Transition Investment Framework lays out our research into the energy transition megatrend and our investment framework. This is the full set of research that supports our sustainable investment theme. For us to accurately assess the capabilities of active investors in the energy transition, we first need to have in-house domain expertise

Summary of Key Outcomes from COP26

This note summarises the key outcomes of COP26 with our thoughts on investment implications. As brief background, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) includes 197 countries, or “Parties”, and is the parent treaty of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement. The Conference of the Parties (“COP”) takes place annually for 2 weeks during

How Carbon Offsets Work – A Deep Dive

Where are we in the transition from risk + return investing to risk + return + impact investing?

We are at dangerous cross-roads today with ESG and impact investing. The momentum from all corners — institutional asset owners, asset managers, and financial reporting regulators — has built to levels not anticipated, having been further boosted by the pandemic. This acute focus on the environment and social impact is a history-making socio-economic phenomenon. But

ESG and Impact Investing: A Roadmap to an Evolving Frontier Webinar Executive Summary

Agenda Presenter Topic Arjun Raghavan Chief Executive Officer Introduction Stan Miranda Chairman and Founder Introduction to ESG and Impact Investing Sir Ronald Cohen Co-Founder Chair, Global Steering Group for Impact Investment Impact Investing: Risk, Return and Impact Euan Finlay Partner, Head of Responsible Investing Pitfalls of ESG and Impact Investing Stan Miranda Chairman and Founder

Partners Capital Annual Investor Workshop 2019 - Sir Ronnie Cohen on Impact Investing

Fees and Costs of Investing

Fair Fees and Alignment - Building Long-Term Partnerships with Best-In-Class Asset Managers

In 2014 we wrote our first whitepaper on “the war on fees”. At the time the proliferation of low-cost passive investment options was challenging the traditional high-fee model of active management. Alignment was poor, and many asset managers generated significant personal wealth regardless of whether they delivered excess returns for their investors. Over the last