Building strong foundations: Investment beliefs

This note focuses on investment beliefs. It is part of our Building Strong Foundations series which address 12 factors associated with strong investment governance in turn.

Here we examine:

• What are investment beliefs?
• Why they matter, how they are decided, and how they are effectively used?

We have long argued that good governance is a key factor that distinguishes the very successful asset owner funds of the world. In 2007, Roger Urwin (Willis Towers Watson's Global Head of Investment Content) and Professor Gordon Clark (Oxford University) conducted a landmark study of investment governance. The study was carried out by examining ten exemplar funds which were selected on the basis of their reputations for strong decision making accompanied by performance success. The key conclusion of the study was that strong governance is a critical requirement to allow organisations to achieve above-average investment outcomes on a sustainable basis.