What if you had a true OCIO by your side?
We designed our OCIO model in 1987 to encompass what we believe to be the best features of an in-house investment office. To us, a true OCIO isn’t about partial solutions; it’s about delivering the full spectrum of what an internal CIO can provide: independence and integrity, open-architecture access, a rigorous investment process, transparent and accountable execution, and a team sized deliberately to know both the market and your priorities. It’s the model institutions often envision but rarely have the internal capacity or scale to build.
A full suite of investment solutions and support.
As your OCIO, we serve as your full investment team. Strategic provides a comprehensive set of services to help you govern, implement, and monitor with confidence. Our role is to help ensure decisions are informed, coordinated, and aligned with long‑term objectives.
We provide practical advice and education on governance and fiduciary best practices, helping you build a strong decision‑making framework. From setting investment objectives and risk parameters to shaping liquidity policies, we help you ensure your strategy starts on solid ground. Clear governance supports clear investment decisions.
A well‑constructed policy is the anchor for disciplined implementation. We work with you to define overall goals, risk tolerance (including enterprise risk), and liquidity needs. Our team leads you through the creation of your Investment Policy and Strategic Asset Allocation that covers asset classes, allocation targets, and permissible ranges. We also can incorporate SRI/ESG guidelines where desired.
We manage the full investment lifecycle: selecting, monitoring, and transitioning managers; planning distributions or liability‑driven strategies; and overseeing cash management. We also align your portfolio with market conditions through portfolio and tactical tilts and with policy through disciplined rebalancing. Our process aims to maintain portfolio coherence through evolving markets.
We carefully review all holdings acquired before our engagement. For those holdings that make sense to retain or are illiquid (such as private equity), we either "adopt" or provide ongoing monitoring and transparent reporting, ensuring these assets remain integrated into your overall strategy. These positions receive the same discipline and attention as the rest of the portfolio.
Our due diligence process spans both investment and operational risk. We review governance, controls, and documentation for managers and vehicles, and provide legal support for negotiations and execution. Our modeling capabilities help surface issues early and supports informed decision making.
We help you communicate your investment approach and portfolio status clearly to boards, senior leadership, donors, and other stakeholders, in order to build confidence and alignment. Effective communication reinforces governance and strengthens consensus.
We handle the operational details, from custodian and prime broker coordination to trade settlement and compliance support, so your team can stay focused on strategy. The goal is to reduce friction and maintain operational continuity.
Our reporting delivers clarity: full portfolio and performance analytics, attribution, and data aggregation, plus outputs to support your finance team. We emphasize transparency so decisions can be reviewed and understood with ease.
“Risk management isn’t about predicting the future. Think of it as consistency based on experience.”
“Operational excellence is many small things done consistently well.”
“Risk doesn’t announce itself—you have to look for it.”
"We handle the process so that clients can focus on outcomes."
Investment Process
Our investment process is built on discipline, transparency, and an intense focus on client success. We believe markets reflect fundamentals, but that active, informed decisions can uncover opportunities others overlook. Using advanced analytics and our proprietary risk system, we manage exposures intentionally and strive to align every decision with your goals. From strategic asset allocation and manager selection to portfolio construction and ongoing stewardship, we take a holistic approach designed with the client to support long‑term portfolio objectives while controlling risk.
Asset Allocation
Strategic calibrates asset allocation with the goal of maximizing the probability of client success. We strive to build a foundation of strong governance and education, collaborating closely to understand your organization’s strategic plan and enterprise risks.
Manager Access
We enable access to what we believe are best-in-class managers across asset classes. Our deep industry network and disciplined research allow us to source diversified alpha, negotiating special investment terms and fee discounts for our client base.
Portfolio Construction
Strategic takes intentional risks with the goal of appropriate compensation for the risk taken. Our portfolio construction process is designed with the aim of optimizing alpha while reducing risk, assembling managers whose strategies complement each other for enhanced diversification and lower overall volatility.
Ongoing Stewardship
We continually fight for every basis point we can add to client returns. This includes rebalancing, tactical tilts, timely manager hiring and firing, negotiating manager fees and terms, robust risk management, and direct management of futures, ETFs, Treasuries, TIPS, and alpha overlays. We also identify opportunistic investments, especially during market dislocations.
Private Markets & Alternative Investments
Strategic’s approach to private markets and alternatives is built on decades of experience, long-term industry relationships, and a commitment to fair client access. Our competitive advantages include:
Our reputation and network provide access to sought after strategies, that are often closed to new investors. We allocate these opportunities equitably among clients, unlike many consulting firms where the largest clients receive preferential access. This helps ensure access is aligned with each client’s strategy rather than organizational size or influence.
We seek skilled managers across the spectrum of alternatives, including venture capital, growth equity, traditional buyouts, real estate, hedge funds, private credit, and opportunistic strategies. This wide net supports diversification and enhances portfolio construction.
Alternatives are selected in the context of your total portfolio, focusing on risk, price sensitivity, and the exploitation of market inefficiencies. The emphasis is on disciplined selection within a coherent portfolio framework.
For hedge funds, we target high alpha with low correlation to broad markets, striving to assemble portfolios that achieve excess returns with lower risk. In private equity, we emphasize top-tier managers in venture capital, growth equity, and lower/middle market buyouts, avoiding mega funds in favor of more efficient market segments. Our construction process seeks to balance opportunity with risk awareness.
Real estate portfolios are structured with the goal of absolute return, diversification, and inflation hedging. Flexibility and discipline guide how these exposures are incorporated.
