By Paul Menchaca
After suffering often staggering losses since the financial crisis shook global markets in 2008, US endowments have been forced to reassess their approach to investing Many endowments are now focusing on mitigating risk and rethinking how to meet financial obligations in a lower-return environment, after having been exposed to the perils of a highly leveraged portfolio.
Portfolio losses were widespread, but particularly swingeing among the top-ranked university endowments. The combined losses for Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford amounted to nearly $23bn in the 12 months ending June 30, 2009. Overall, the 10 largest endowments dropped $36bn over the period.
