Alternative assets have long provided institutional investors, such as pensions, with diversification and enhanced portfolio efficiency and resilience. A broader conversation is now underway on how to make these benefits accessible to more people in a number of different ways.
Jillien Flores, Chief Advocacy Officer at MFA, discusses how alternative asset management can help more investors access these opportunities. She highlights three strategies policymakers can pursue to responsibly expand access:
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- Rethinking investor access
- Increasing availability through regulated investment companies
- Expanding access to retirement savers
Transcript:
[00.00 – 00.08}: There is a broad conversation around the benefits of alternative asset management and how to better expand access to those benefits to more people.
[00.09 – 00.14}: There are three ways in which that’s happening primarily. One, who can invest in a private fund.
[00.15 – 00.21}: Two, what types of strategies and assets can go into products that are regulated like mutual funds.
[00.22 – 00.31}: And then third, 401K plans. The vehicle that most Americans use to meet their retirement objectives typically don’t include exposure to alternative asset management.
[00.32 – 00.46}: Alternatives provide so many benefits to institutional investors like pensions, foundations, endowments, and allowing those benefits to be appreciated by more investors is a really important conversation underway right now.
[00.46 – 00.58}: Alternative asset management provides the diversification to a portfolio to really ensure that that portfolio is exposed to the broader economy in a way that manages for short-term and long-term outcomes.
[00.59 – 01.05}: MFA looks forward to continuing to work with policymakers to ensure that access is modernized in a responsible way.
