A recent article in The Wall Street Journal suggested that corporate pension funds and university endowments have missed out on much of the rally for stocks since 2009, instead following a push to diversify into other investments. Candidly, these other investments have had disappointing performances.
While there is a case to be made for greater diversification in large pools of funds, one wonders if this may be “a case of too clever by half.” This, defined by Wiktionary is “shrewd but flawed by overthinking or excessive complexity, with a resulting tendency to be unreliable or unsuccessful.”
How about KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) as an alternative strategy?
All comments and suggestions are welcome.
Walter J. Kirchberger, CFA