OCIO – ‘Outsourced CIO’
As organizations focus more on their strategic goals and mission, financial planning and management can become cumbersome to sufficiently address in-house.  Engaging a strong financial partner to provide portfolio management services for all or some investments is an excellent solution.  As an “outsourced CIO”, Seelaus becomes a true partner in helping secure the financial future of an organization.  Through our rigorous portfolio process, market and research expertise and hands on approach, Seelaus is a strong OCIO partner.

Strategy and Portfolio Construction
The cornerstone of any partnership starts with the Seelaus team understanding an organization’s mission, values, resources and financial objectives, as well as the community it serves.  The team identifies ways to further these objectives, developing a tailored investment approach to meet the organization’s goals and partnering where possible, on community based initiatives. 

Developing the investment strategy is a multi-step process.  The Seelaus team establishes a strong understanding of the organization’s financial needs from both a long and short term perspective.  With these financial needs in mind, an investment strategy is formulated and discussed to address topics including risk tolerance, asset allocation, liquidity parameters, duration and market considerations.  Creating an investment policy statement enables future members of the organization to understand the investment strategy and continue productive dialogue with the Seelaus team, an important source of continuity within Board and Investment Committee term cycles.

The portfolio construction process is rigorous with top-down and bottom-up fundamental market analysis determining overall portfolio positioning.  The investment team identifies opportunities to generate Alpha, using self-generated ideas and research as well as longstanding sell-side relationships.  We view asset allocation as the key to performance and realize the necessity for critical reassessment of investments and high-touch portfolio management.

Impact Investing
Impact investing exemplifies the idea that investors can “do well while doing good” within their investment portfolios.  The impact investing market offers diverse and viable opportunities for investors to advance social and environmental solutions through investments that also produce financial returns.  For foundations, this presents an exciting connection to link core social and/or environmental mission goals while maintaining or growing their overall endowment. 

As a sector, impact investing has experienced strong growth driven by investor demand and an increasingly diverse availability of investment products.  The Global Impact Investors Network (GIIN) estimates in their latest annual survey that there is now approximately $228bn in impact investing assets, roughly double from the prior year.  Considering the addition of impact investing to an investment strategy merits thoughtful analysis and discussion.