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Bill Spitz was the longtime head of Vanderbilt University\u2019s endowment before retiring, for the first time, in 2007. He has received numerous lifetime achievement awards for his work and is one of the legends in the business.\xa0 After failing in his retirement, he joined Diversified Trust Company, a wealth manager with $6.5 billion in assets under management that he co-founded back in 1994.

Our conversation discusses managing an endowment in the early years, implementing unconventional investments, creating an edge as an allocator, selecting managers and conducting due diligence, exiting managers, challenging current landscape, and working with families.

For more episodes, go to capitalallocatorspodcast.com/podcast

Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides

Show Notes

1:21 - (INTERVIEW STARTS)

1:30 \u2013 Early days at Vanderbilt and the landscape for university investment offices

3:17 \u2013 Career before working at Vanderbilt

3:59 \u2013 Transition from Wall Street to going back to his alma mater

4:48 \u2013 Pioneering Portfolio Management: An Unconventional Approach to Institutional Investment

5:23 \u2013 Out of the box ideas when he first got started

6:25 \u2013 Convincing the board to approve unconventional ideas

8:28 \u2013 Why Bill retired

\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 9:28 \u2013 Diversified Trust White Papers

9:31 \u2013 What is the edge that allocators have when it comes to investing

\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 9:33 \u2013 Paul Johnson and Paul Sonkin podcast episode

\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 9:35 \u2013 Pitch the Perfect Investment: The Essential Guide to Winning on Wall Street

\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 10:05 \u2013 Gaining an Edge in Investing\xa0

12:30 \u2013 Where can skill from an allocator perspective be applied

14:32 \u2013 Judging the skill of managers as an allocator

15:16 \u2013 Looking out to the future, how will the endowment model stack up against the traditional 60/40 portfolio\xa0

17: 47 -\xa0 How do you manage clients when your strategy may not be keeping up with the S&P 500 in the short term\xa0

19:15 \u2013 Thoughts on bitcoin\xa0

20:00 \u2013 How Bill was able to get involved with Diversified Trust while working at Vanderbilt\xa0

21:47 \u2013 Differences in managing endowments vs taxable pools of capital\xa0

23:22 \u2013 Stories that either derail an investment process or educate someone to stay the course\xa0

24:23 \u2013 Manager selection process and what Bill looks for when choosing the right one\xa0

28:01 \u2013 Bill\u2019s view on exiting managers\xa0

29:55 \u2013 How do you measure the evolution of a manager\u2019s investing strategy, especially as the market changes\xa0

31:41 \u2013 What is different today about investing vs when Bill first started\xa0

33:56 \u2013 Do alternative and emerging investment streams deliver the returns that many hope for\xa0

35:13 \u2013 Why don\u2019t endowments, foundations, or pension funds feel comfortable with moving chunks of their portfolio to cash\xa0

37:00 \u2013 How does Bill think about the balance of investments with higher return potentials against their higher costs\xa0

38:13 \u2013 Any categories that really pique Bill\u2019s interest\xa0

39:22 \u2013 What does the asset management industry look like in 10-20 years from now\xa0

41:56 \u2013 What should aspiring money managers think about as they move forward in this business

43:09 \u2013 What Bill is most proud of in his career

43:54 \u2013 Favorite sports moment

45:01 \u2013 What teaching from Bill\u2019s parents has most stayed with him

\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 45:14 \u2013 Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 45:18 \u2013 The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America

46:10 \u2013 What information does Bill read that he gets a lot out of

\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 46:20 \u2013 The Economist

\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 46:33 \u2013 Wall Street Journal

\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 46:34 \u2013 Bloomberg

46:45 \u2013 Life lesson that he wished he knew a lot earlier

47:29 \u2013 In his waning days, what advice would Bill give himself today