$2 Trillion Investor on AI Portfolio Risk, Finding Top Funds, and Preparing for a Downturn
Tim McCusker, President of institutional investment consulting firm NEPC, joins David Weisburd to discuss managing approximately $2 trillion in advisory assets. McCusker analyzes institutional herd behavior, why investment committee governance dictates contrarian deployment during downturns, how pensions and endowments approach asset allocation, best practices for co-investments, and how macro risks around AI concentration and the federal deficit impact long-term portfolios.
- NEPC President Tim McCusker, overseeing roughly $2 trillion in advisory assets, argues that contrarian deployment during market drawdowns depends on committee alignment rather than portfolio analysis. Read →
- Re-underwriting a general partner's direct deal burns institutional diligence resources without improving returns. Read →
- Tim McCusker tracks roughly $2 trillion in advisory assets at NEPC, yet finds that most institutional portfolios still cluster around median peer allocations instead of pure liability needs. Read →
- NEPC advises on roughly $2 trillion in assets, observing stark structural divergence between university endowments and public pension plans. Read →
- Institutional portable alpha blew up in 2008 because managers carried an unhedged 0.2 to 0.3 equity beta inside supposedly market-neutral alpha pools, triggering cash drains during margin calls. Read →
- Over half of the private markets funds underwritten by NEPC over the past decade were Funds 1 through 4, driven by institutional appetite for early-vintage outperformance. Read →