North American Institutional Markets 2022
Shifting Allocations Amid Market Uncertainty
Track Product- and Service-Level Demands
- Examine the needs of institutional asset owners across client segments, and how asset managers can collaborate with asset owners to offer investment solutions that fit their needs
- Explore the shift toward private investments in an inflationary environment
- Assess liability-driven investors’ approach to potential rising-rate environment
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Summary
This report focuses on trends in U.S. institutional markets and includes an analysis of the Canadian defined benefit marketplace. It covers how managers are serving the evolving needs of each institutional client segment (defined benefit, endowments and foundations, health and hospital systems, and insurance general accounts). It also examines how asset managers organize their distribution and marketing teams to market products and solutions to institutional clients. Areas of focus include trends in investment vehicle use (particularly collective investment trusts), asset allocation trends, and uptake of active versus passive strategies.
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A Note from the Author
U.S. Institutional Asset Owners Turn to Alternatives Combat Inflation and Rising Rates

Christopher Swansey
Senior Analyst
Bio →

Christopher Swansey
Senior Analyst
Christopher is a senior analyst on the Institutional team where he supports multiple reports annually, including the annual outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) report, and various strategic consulting projects throughout the year. He also regularly contributes to The Cerulli Edge—Institutional Edition, The Cerulli Edge—U.S. Edition, and The Cerulli Edge—U.S. Monthly Product Trends.
Christopher was a Senior Analyst at Mercer working within their executive compensation practice before joining Cerulli in 2018.
Full biography here.
There is an abundance of opportunities for alternative investment managers among institutional channels. As high inflation (89%) and lower expected investment returns (86%) continue to challenge institutional asset owners, many (44%) indicate a desire to increase their allocations to alternative investments. Among alternative investment allocations, asset owners plan to allocate to:
- Infrastructure (28%)
- Real estate investments (26%)
- Private equity (20%)
- Hedge funds (18%)
Infrastructure, given its ability to hedge against inflation, will outpace other alternatives in the next 24 months, in terms of net flows, according to our projections.
For alternative managers seeking to expand into the institutional channel, our research finds that asset owners seek providers that can offer specialization in a specific asset class (96%), robust performance (94%), and competitive fees (92%). We believe that providers that maintain these offerings will be well poised to attract institutional flows.
For more on this as well as a comprehensive overview into institutional markets including client segments—insurance general accounts, public defined benefit (DB) plans, single- and multiemployer corporate DB plans, foundations, endowments, and health and hospital systems—evaluate our latest report, North American Institutional Markets 2022: Shifting Allocations Amid Market Uncertainty.
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