Trusted Advisors to Sovereign Wealth Funds, Endowments & Family Offices

We help long‑horizon investors design resilient total portfolios, build dynamic asset‑allocation processes, and translate investment beliefs into repeatable decisions.

>$500Bn

Capital Advised

20+ yrs

Avg. Experience

Global

Regional Coverage

Total‑Portfolio

From SAA to TPA: objectives, beliefs, mandates, risk budgets.

Dynamic Allocation

Macro views → signals → governance for timely tilts.

Risk & Resilience

Stress testing, drawdown management, crisis playbooks.

Operating Model

Decision rights, committees, cadence, dashboards.

Sovereign Wealth
Public Pensions
Endowments
Foundations
Family Offices
Insurers

What we do

Institutional‑grade consulting, end‑to‑end

Dynamic Asset Allocation

  • Empirically robust, data-driven framework
  • Combining valuation, macro & technicals
  • Governance led implementation & review
  • Playbooks for risk‑on/risk‑off regimes

Total‑Portfolio Architecture

  • Objectives → beliefs → constraints → policy
  • Cross-asset capital efficiency
  • Risk budgeting & factor decomposition
  • Internal vs external & mandate design

Operating Model & Governance

  • Decision rights & committee design
  • Cadence, dashboards & KPI trees
  • Manager oversight & escalation paths
  • Workflow design & end-to-end processes

Risk, Liquidity & Resilience

  • Scenario analysis across the distribution
  • Liquidity ladders & crisis simulations
  • Drawdown controls & hedging frameworks
  • Funding policy & collateral management

Strategic Partnerships

  • Co‑development with peer institutions
  • Collaboration with best-in-class external PMs
  • Knowledge transfer & training
  • Secondments & embedded teams

Training & Workshops

  • TPA vs SAA masterclass
  • Committee bootcamps & tabletop drills
  • Custom programs for boards & execs
  • Scenario labs for real-time decision-making

Our Principles

Our partnership philosophy

Independent

Ashdown are here to serve you, operating entirely independently of product platforms.

Our advice is grounded solely in what strengthens your long-horizon outcomes — free from structural biases, commercial incentives, or organisational path-dependence.

This allows us to surface tensions, sharpen decision frameworks, and support genuine institutional clarity.

Practical

Our work is shaped by real-world implementation experience across sovereign funds, endowments, and multi-asset platforms.

We focus on translating strategy into operating models, workflows, dashboards, and processes that fit the way committees and teams actually function.

Frameworks matter — but execution is essential. Ashdown’s guidance is shaped by practitioner insight and a deep understanding of institutional constraints.

Empirically Robust

Every recommendation is anchored in evidence, validated through quantitative analysis, scenario testing, and total-portfolio interactions.

We integrate market data, macro structure, factor sensitivities, and behavioural patterns to ensure decisions are grounded in rigorous empirical understanding.

This discipline creates clarity — enabling policies and strategies designed to hold up across regimes, stress periods, and long-horizon uncertainty.

Who we serve

Built for long‑horizon, mission‑driven allocators

Sovereign Wealth Funds

Strategy & overlays for complex, multi-asset SWFs. Navigation of governance, sequencing & real-world constraints.

Endowments & Foundations

Translating spending rules into robust policy & dynamic tilts through the cycle.

Family Offices

Institutional discipline for multi-generational capital: governance, pacing, manager selection.

How we work

Clear, codified, collaborative

STEP 01

Diagnose

Rapid current‑state review: beliefs, mandates, risks, data, decisions.

STEP 02

Design

Target‑state blueprints: policy, ranges, signals, dashboards.

STEP 03

Deliver

PMO and change: pilots, playbooks, training, comms.

STEP 04

Develop

Capability transfer & embedded support for durability.

Selected work

Recent engagements

Sovereign wealth

Whole‑of‑fund TPA redesign

  • Reframed objectives & beliefs; codified risk budgets
  • Built dynamic signals & tilt ranges across beta
  • Committee cadence, dashboards & crisis drills
Endowment

Spending‑aligned policy & liquidity ladder

  • Liquidity ladder linked to spending & commitments
  • Factor‑aware manager map; pacing & re‑ups
  • Board education & tabletop stress tests
Family office

Institutionalising governance

  • Investment charter & decision rights
  • Risk monitoring & external manager oversight
  • Consolidated reporting; monthly review rhythm

Insights

Perspectives for long‑horizon investors

From SAA to TPA

A practical roadmap to a total‑portfolio approach, including decision rights and risk budgets.

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Designing dynamic tilts

Combining valuation, macro and technicals into accountable, auditable signals.

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Liquidity in a crisis

How to build ladders, playbooks and collateral to keep optionality when it matters most.

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Contact

Let’s talk about your objectives

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