Over the last decade the Knight Foundation has moved 22.5 percent of its endowment, or $472 million, to management by women- and minority-owned firms. Now, Knight is sharing what it has learned in a new study.
“There is no legitimate reason not to invest with diverse asset managers in the 21st century,” said Knight’s Alberto Ibargüen.
The study found “no statistically significant” performance difference between diverse-owned firms and their peers. Yet diverse managers manage just 1.1 percent of the $71.4 trillion in assets under management.
The study, led by Harvard Business School’s Josh Lerner and conducted by Bella Research Group, looked at mutual funds, hedge funds, private equity funds and real estate funds.
Women- and minority-owned firms account for just three to nine percent of firms and one to five percent of assets under management.
