Investors in the retirement savings sector need exactly these specialised strategies to achieve better returns. And although it might not be immediately obvious, out of our assets under management totalling 15.2 billion euros, 13.2 billion euros are allocated to institutional clients. Of this, 70% are retirement investors such as pension funds, corporates and churches. This means we are already quite strong in the retirement sector and aim to continue growing here.

Why not? The focus is on specialised strategies that can help investors achieve deeper diversification of their assets. These strategies typically come with a well-defined asset allocation that distinguishes between bonds and equities. Our role is to optimise that.

Institutional capital investment has changed significantly in recent years. Previously, you could categorise investments as equities, bonds, or mixed portfolios. There has been considerable evolution since then. Many investors are now following the model of David Swensen, the former head of investments at Yale University, i.e. what the American university endowments are doing. This involves more equities, a global investment focus, and increasing investments in private markets, infrastructure, and liquid, specialised strategies.

Real diversification requires more than just dividing assets between equities and bonds. We might not handle the core allocation, but we offer clients attractive satellite strategies to enrich their portfolios. This includes alpha strategies or alternative risk premiums, such as our volatility strategies. These are specialised components that a retirement savings institution needs in its portfolio today.

That’s correct; there are several specialists in the market with extensive track records. But we do offer a CLO strategy that has some characteristics of private market debt. We currently manage over 4 billion euros in this area, making us one of the leading providers in Germany.

We are a mid-sized provider with, in my view, a substantial volume. The retirement savings sector offers us enormous growth potential.

We strongly advocate for increasing the capital markets orientation of pension savings. This is the only way to achieve reasonable returns. Supporting any move towards equities is something we stand behind.

As a mid-sized asset manager, we must focus our resources efficiently. We consider the work of the BVI to be very valuable and maintain close communication. However, effective lobbying also requires significant personnel resources on our part.

Take my own case. I’ve been promised a monthly pension of 1,500 euros from my pension scheme. It’s not insignificant, but it could be much higher. The return on such a corporate pension might be 3 to 4%. If it were 6 or 7%, the pension would be significantly larger.

Currently, around 53% of people are entitled to a corporate pension. The percentage has increased, but it’s still not enough. We need to aim for 70%. That’s why we advocate for it. Corporate pensions are extremely important, because statutory pensions alone will not be sufficient. In this sense, our work and our strategies for pension funds contribute to ultimately making older people happy. I always tell our employees that working at an asset management firm is a very meaningful task.

Why not invest 200 euros a month, split equally between „Lupus alpha Smaller German Champions“ and an MSCI World ETF? I’ve calculated that with a 6% return, you’d have over 400,000 euros after 40 years. Compare that to the statutory pension.

Financial education is key. Young people need to understand the importance of building capital and starting with a high equity share. What’s encouraging is that the number of young people investing in equities has doubled in the past decade. I see the glass as half full.

It has grown organically. There are connections between strategies, even through people who work with us or have joined us. Some of this is related to regulatory developments like the Investment Modernization Act of 2004, which first gave access to single hedge funds. That was the start of our derivatives strategies. For us, it’s important to offer only strategies where active managers have an advantage and to build a track record, which we then can convincingly present to clients.

Of course, we receive such inquiries from time to time, but it’s not on our agenda. We started as a stable partnership over 20 years ago, and nothing has changed. We want to continue growing organically within this structure, and remain committed to our performance-oriented approach.

Our goal is to grow faster than the market. We aim for a 7% increase in assets under management per year, which is about twice the average rate.

Many of our investors are internationally positioned and well-diversified. But their portfolios are still vulnerable to setbacks, or must adhere to strict regulations, such as those faced by insurance companies. Nothing is more expensive than having to abandon a strategic asset allocation and drastically reshape a portfolio in a crisis. For such situations, we offer overlay strategies. We see a significant demand for these.

We have a different concept compared to large master KVGs. Many investors are disappointed and therefore turn to us. Our approach is to leave the strategic allocation unchanged, and offer a modular approach that combines various hedging instruments, such as a tail-risk parachute or an income booster that leverages the long-term upward movement of equities, and thus significantly reduces costs.

Such strategies are very complex and often require one to one and a half years of engagement. Thus, we might gain one or two clients per year. But they tend to stay with us for a long time.

Finding good people is challenging. However, we are doing well in portfolio management and sales, and are always open to talent. Recruiting in IT is currently very difficult. Many candidates are put off by our predominantly office-based work, with only one day of home office. Overall, we benefit from a large network and from our students, who recommend us or join us as junior professionals.