> So, how did the endowments fare? Pitchbook reports that the 50 largest university endowments saw an annual return of 8.3 percent over the past 10 years. And how did a plain vanilla 60-40 Vanguard mutual fund (60 percent stocks, 40 percent bonds) do? It returned 8.38 percent over the same period without the added risk of speculative investments in risky private assets.
> Let that sink in. Endowment funds got no extra payoff for investing in private equity funds or other private assets.
> The lesson? US endowment funds could have made the same return by joining with millions of ordinary people and investing in a plain vanilla mutual fund.
https://cepr.net/publications/private-equity-university-endo...
https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/pitchbooks-university-en...
> So, how did the endowments fare? Pitchbook reports that the 50 largest university endowments saw an annual return of 8.3 percent over the past 10 years. And how did a plain vanilla 60-40 Vanguard mutual fund (60 percent stocks, 40 percent bonds) do? It returned 8.38 percent over the same period without the added risk of speculative investments in risky private assets.
> Let that sink in. Endowment funds got no extra payoff for investing in private equity funds or other private assets.
> The lesson? US endowment funds could have made the same return by joining with millions of ordinary people and investing in a plain vanilla mutual fund.