There is a systemic issue of poor diversity in the investment industry; not just asset management but also other segments. We are committed to help address this, noting this should ultimately help to deliver the best outcomes for savers, in addition to helping to address societal legitimacy issues.
“Pleasingly, the analysis supports our beliefs; investment teams with diversity tend to generate better excess returns”
Chris Redmond,
Head of Manager Research
Our manager research process incorporates an explicit assessment of diversity, with a goal of identifying those asset managers with optimal cognitive diversity. While cognitive diversity is hard to measure, it is heavily influenced by other metrics of diversity that we can collect. In recent years we have developed a more data-driven approach to measuring diversity, starting with various measures of gender and ethnic diversity, while supplementing this with the deeper and more nuanced aspects gleaned through our manager research process. We believe we must move beyond just minority and female ownership used by many in the industry, but also to develop metrics and a common language for measuring diversity that allows us to engage the whole asset management industry, including those that are weak in diversity today. Pleasingly, our initial findings suggest a positive link between Willis Towers Watson’s assessment of diversity and performance outcomes, which aligns with our beliefs.
In this paper we cover:
| Title | File Type | File Size |
|---|---|---|
| Diversity in the asset management industry | 2.1 MB |
