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The last few years have been challenging for the private equity industry. As it enters its second half-century, it’s time for a reassessment.

Asset owners face dilemmas regarding the implementation of their investment programs, including the balancing of portfolio goals with beliefs on taking advantage of destructive business models.

The series concludes with the story of an endowment CIO struggling with subpar performance and trying to make sense of the assumptions about what it means (and what it takes) to be an institutional capital allocator.

The first posting in this series covers a how-to book for asset owners authored by the chief investment officer of a private foundation, who uses the analogy of climbing a mountain to describe the path to investment success.

This second posting about the work of Richard Ennis focuses on some of his out-of-the-mainstream views about institutional investment practice, prompting some important questions for fiduciaries.

What do we know about the reports prepared by institutional asset owners regarding the asset management organizations they hire? A review of a new paper on the topic (and some ideas of our own).

This posting begins a series about how the cultural analysis of investment entities can reveal how decisions are made and why.

A paper based on a recent survey of hedge fund managers prompts questions about the alignment of interests between hedge funds and their investors.

Public pension funds provide more transparency than other asset owners and also face greater scrutiny. That’s a combustible mix when things go wrong (repeatedly).

How simple or complex should your strategy be? How important is good communication? Where do expected returns come from? Are better operating models becoming available?

Certainty and uncertainty, access and analysis, the impact of a large class of investors, and investments in RIAs are topics in these additional readings about private equity.

Despite the popularity of private equity, beliefs about its performance attributes vary dramatically, while the investment characteristics of the holdings are much different than in the past. That calls for a reassessment.

Two white papers present visions of the future. Asset owners need to weigh the various ideas to decide which ones will move their organizations — and their portfolios — forward.

In many ways, outsourced chief investment officers are a return to the distant past. Some history, comments on the current environment, and considerations for those interested in this hot industry trend.

Size matters. Big organizations have advantages and disadvantages, as do small ones. What are the general principles for thinking about scale and performance, and what are the exceptions?