Advisors to help investments grow  

The Trust has new investment advisors, with Cambridge Associates now helping us protect and grow our assets.

Trustline, November 2010

Cambridge Associates, which has its headquarters in Boston and offices around the world, took on the role this year. It will advise the Trust on the best strategies to maximise income, while protecting and future-proofing assets. Getting the best results from the Trust’s investments is essential, as the annual grants budget is entirely reliant on investment returns.   

One of the first strategies Cambridge Associates is helping us develop is a smoothing system. The annual grants and operating budget will now be based on average investment returns from the past five years, rather than just the past year’s performance.

This will flatten out the impact of one-off market  fluctuations and help us avoid situations such as we faced in 2008/09,  when grants had to be put on hold during the global investment market melt-down.

The result will be that the grants budget will remain steady from year to year, growing slowly as the value of total assets increase.