Overview
This video explores the heritage of WTW’s endowment-style investment approach working with Oxford University endowments.
Our investment philosophy
The Fund adopts a "Total Portfolio Approach (TPA)", where investment ideas compete for capital, rather than fixed asset allocation buckets. This enables the team to focus on a broad opportunity set, selecting top-tier external managers, and investing across diversified asset classes to mitigate risk. In addition, the Fund emphasises long-term capital growth from a broad range of return drivers while managing volatility and diversifying beyond a more traditional 60/40 equity/bond portfolio.
Leveraging WTW’s Manager Research capabilities, the Fund identifies and partners with specialist asset managers to enhance performance, whilst leveraging our global scale to negotiate preferential fees for investors.
Differentiated approach
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Unconstrained opportunity set
Access the full investable universe across traditional and alternative asset classes, providing investors with access to our best ideas in a highly diversified portfolio.
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Meaningful allocation to private markets
A key differentiator of this fund is its mature private markets portfolio, allowing investors access to the illiqudity premium whilst unlocking a high-performing asset class over the long-term.
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ESG integration
We integrate ESG across all aspects of our approach - from asset allocation and mandate creation to security selection - and as we expect that it will produce higher returns over the long term
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Fee savings
Our scale enables us to negotiate preferred fee terms with underlying managers, allowing investors to benefit from cost efficiencies typically unavailable through direct access.
Investment objective
The return target of the PF is to achieve CPI +5% pa, net of all fees and costs, and we target these returns with around half the volatility than public equity markets.
| Expected return and risk | |
|---|---|
| Expected return | CPI + 5% p.a. (net of fees) |
| Expected volatility | Around half the volatility risk than public equity markets. |
Fund facts
| Base currency | GBP |
|---|---|
| Fund inception date | 1 May 2006 |
| NAV | Monthly |
| Subscriptions | Monthly |
| Subscription timings | 10 business days’ notice in Ireland. Cash required by T-4. |
| Minimum initial subscription | GBP 10 million |
| Redemptions | Quarterly |
| Redemption timings |
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| Regulator | Central Bank of Ireland |
| Legal form | Qualifying Investor Alternative Investment Fund |
| Structure | Master – Feeder |
| Manager | Carne Global Fund Managers (Ireland) Limited |
| Investment Manager | Towers Watson Investment Management Limited |
| Administrator | BNY Mellon Fund Services (Ireland) DAC |
| Depository | Bank of New York Mellon SA/NV |
Disclaimer
Please note that:
The value of all investments and the income from them can go down as well as up. This means you could get back less than you invested.
Past performance and simulated past performance are not reliable indicators of future returns.
Changes in exchange rates may cause the value of investments to decrease or increase.
Tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each investor and may be subject to change in the future.
The securities and derivatives investment activities which the funds engage in, may be speculative and involve a substantial risk of loss.
Units or shares in the funds described herein may become illiquid and investors may redeem their investments only as stated in the funds’ prospectuses.
Key risk warnings
- This document is based on information available to Willis Towers Watson at the date of issue, and takes no account of subsequent developments.
- Towers Watson Investment Management Limited has approved this document for issue to recipients categorised as Professional Clients only.
- This material is intended for investors with long-term investment time horizons.
- The value of all investments and the income from them can go down as well as up. This means you could get back less than you invested.
- Changes in exchange rates may cause the value of investments to decrease or increase.
- Past performance does not predict future returns.
- The document contains figures that refer to simulated past performance, which does not predict future returns.
- Expected performance does not predict future returns.
- Tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each investor and may be subject to change in the future.
- The securities and derivatives investment activities which the fund engages in may be speculative and involve a substantial risk of loss.
- The fund may be exposed to credit and/or default risk of issuers of debt securities that may be held within the fund.
- The issuers of any bonds within the fund may default or not be able to pay the bond income as expected.
- If the fund is denominated in a currency other than your home currency, movements in exchange rates may, if not hedged, have a significant impact on the value of (and income from) your investment.
- Shares/units in the fund may become illiquid and investors may redeem their investments only as stated in the fund’s prospectus.
- Private markets refer to investments not traded on a public exchange or market.
- Underlying private markets investments of the fund will normally be in unlisted companies and assets whose securities are not publicly traded and are therefore likely to be illiquid. They carry substantially higher risk than many investments in the equity of larger, listed companies, their public debt securities, or in listed real assets.
- Investors should regard an investment in private markets as a long-term investment which carries higher risk than many other forms of investment.
- There is usually less transparency in place around the management of private markets investments given the lower disclosure requirements. In general, there is limited information available on the investments and performance of the underlying portfolio companies and assets, other than annual or semi-annual financial statements, or sometimes, quarterly reports.
- Such private market investments are more difficult to value given that they are not traded on a public exchange or market.
