Equities – thinking differently can make a big difference

The status quo of active equity management is not delivering. Although it is difficult to outperform equity markets, it is not impossible. But how can asset owners be successful in active management?

We believe that in order to help generate better returns than the cd we must go beyond typical approaches. We have therefore established our equity investing beliefs to get more from active equity managers.

Willis Towers Watson’s equity investing beliefs:

• We believe that genuinely skilled managers exist. We invest significant time and effort in identifying them.
• We believe that high active share and concentrated portfolios are advantageous. Academic research supports this.
• Our expectations of success rise when investors engage with investment managers to deliver better outcomes.
• Portfolios can be more robust when they are diversified across many managers with different approaches and specialisms.
• We believe in accessing a broad opportunity set through unrestricted global mandates.
• Contrarian portfolio management can potentially add to long-term returns. Investors should be willing to add capital to underperforming managers and take it away from strong outperformers.
• Costs matter. We seek to deliver value for money by using our scale to reduce costs and using our influence with managers to create bespoke, cost effective products.

Our best ideas in equities already form a core part of the portfolios of our delegated clients, whether via a fiduciary arrangement or our pooled solution. For other clients, we would be delighted to discuss ways to help reap the potential benefits of investing in these assets.

Download our brochure to learn more about our Better Equities approach to active equity investment.