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8:55 AM ET •
Building & Nurturing the Performance Team

The performance measurement team has to step up its game as financial services firms face a new landscape of market volatility, increased competition, tighter budgets, and more regulation. This means that a firm needs a strong performance team to stay ahead of its rivals. Each firm needs to build its performance team based upon the firm’s operating model, particular circumstances, and available talent. Firms also need to find new ways to keep their current staff members engaged and committed to their posts for the long haul. This panel will explore strategies to attract people with new sets of expertise, and to nurture current staff to stay and move forward with the firm.

How should the performance team be organized? What are the options for structuring it?
What is the best way for a firm to attract top performance measurement talent?
What is the best way for performance team members to advance their skills and become more valuable to the team?
What can firms do to attract potential team members who have not worked in a performance measurement setting before?
What incentives beyond salary and benefits will keep a performance team intact?
What emerging technologies might give team members new skills and new challenges?
How viable is it for firms to provide training internally to get performance and client team members up to speed?

Moderator:
Alex Shafran, CFA, SVP, Performance Analytics & Client Reporting, Cohen & Steers

Panelists:
Ray Lee, CFA, CIPM, Head of Performance and Analytics, Jennison Associates
Theresa Dijkstra, AVP, Performance & Attribution, MetLife
Christine Iannacone, Investment Senior Vice President, CIPM, Head of Investment Performance Reporting and Analysis, Prudential Financial

8:55 AM ET •
Attracting New Talent to the Client Reporting Team

Like many financial services disciplines, client reporting teams need to develop effective strategies to attract and nurture new talent. Once talented staff members are found they want a healthy work-life balance. They also need to be motivated and challenged in order to perform their essential responsibilities to clients. More likely than not, new staff members also want a career path that leads to more analytical than hands-on client reporting responsibilities. If not managed well, these concerns and expectations could lead to staff turnover, which will have an impact on the team’s productivity, creativity and efficiency.

What are the most effective ways to find new talent?
What are some successful strategies for keeping new staff focused & challenged?
How important is the life/career balance to staff retention?
How important is working remotely to new staff members?
What workflow refinements would keep staff members engaged in their work?
What kinds of career paths are available to client team members?

Moderator:
Jeff Decker, Head of Client Reporting, Morgan Stanley

Panelists:
Jennifer Burka, Senior Director, Head of Portfolio Analytics and Accounting, Harris Associates
Jamie Husney, Head of Wealth Management Reporting, AllianceBernstein
Russell Newman, Former COO of Rothschild & Co.

9:45 AM ET •
Best-in-Class Support for Multi-Asset Strategies

A trend is emerging among asset owners and other investing organizations in which they are favoring larger investment firms that have the resources to scale and fully support diverse, multi-asset strategies. These firms must also be able to adjust to complex regulatory requirements such as FINRA Regulatory Notice 20-21 for private funds, which impacts the calculation of returns on multi-asset strategies. This means that many investment firms are under pressure to return attractive levels of performance even though volatility has rocked many asset classes. In order to make the most of the situation, portfolio managers are emphasizing existing strategies while pushing for stricter approaches to achieve alpha and performance across all assets. For performance teams, the new multi-asset world requires many, ongoing adjustments.

What are the costs of a multi-asset strategy in terms of hiring performance team talent, IT management changes, and new compliance requirements?
What are the allocation challenges of mixed public and private equity portfolios, and how will those decisions impact performance teams?
What are the attribution and analytics challenges of private equity assets that are part of multi-asset strategies? How are performance teams adjusting to them?
How viable is the option of outsourcing of chief investment officers (OCIO) in supporting multi-asset strategies and portfolios?
How challenging are the analytics needed to optimize multi-asset strategies?

Moderator:
Shirley Lam, Vice President, Performance Analysis, Cohen & Steers

Panelists:
Natalie Mills, VP, Head of Performance Reporting, Hamilton Lane
Jeff Decker, Head of Client Reporting, Morgan Stanley
Parvinder Setia, CFA, Global Head of Performance Attribution Technology Platform, J.P. Morgan Asset Management

9:45 AM ET • Outsourcing Client Reporting: What Are the Options?

Firms are exploring their options when it comes to outsourcing client reporting. It’s a challenging step because whomever the firm picks to outsource reporting will have to maintain or improve levels of support for clients. In fact, the outsourcer will play a key role in helping a firm attract new clients amid an increasingly competitive environment. This session will cover the emerging best models and practices for outsourcing client reporting including the move to an outsourced chief investment officer, a.k.a. an OCIO.

What are the different ways that a firm can outsource client reporting?
Should outsourcing be by functions such as overnight servicing? Or should it be coverage during certain times of the day?
How useful is outsourcing for specialized client reporting?
What are some of the challenges that client reporting teams may have when working with an OCIO?
How can a firm measure the success of an outsourcing provider?
What can a client reporting team do when they find that an outsourcer is not meeting expectations?

Moderator:
Nick Padgen, Principal, Head of Operations, Pzena

Panelists:
Andrew Manickas, VP, Director, Managed Services, FactSet
Susan Agbenoto, Director Investment Performance, Opus Investment Management
Hume Najdawi, Director, Co-Head of the Client Group, MacKay Shields

10:55 AM ET • Data Governance to the Rescue?

The data demands upon performance and client teams are growing along with the opportunities for investment firms. Performance and client teams must offer data in a variety of ways from major analytical reports to information about trading positions and portfolios. Clients want all their data needs to be accurate, on time, and in the formatting they prefer. To help with this growing challenge, firms are embracing data governance frameworks to help them manage the high volumes of data and the wide variety of data. They also need optimal workflows to keep pace with client demands and client support for any operational or IT issues that need to be addressed. The hope is that optimal data governance will lead to improvements in investment data management, performance measurement and attribution, and post-trade compliance. This session will attempt to bring clarity to the data governance conundrum.

Why should performance and client teams make the case for a firm-wide data governance framework?
What are the costs associated with a modern data governance strategy?
What are the roles of performance and client teams in the establishment of a data governance framework?
What role does regulation play in the creation of the framework?
Where should the data live within a firm’s framework? How should firms optimize data access data for different reasons?

Moderator:
Ambika D'Souza, CIPM, CSPO, formerly Vice President of T. Rowe Price Associates

Panelists:
Daryl Bradford, SVP, Director, Performance & Attribution, Acadian Asset Management
Philip Delin, Director of Performance & Analytics, Sterling Capital Management
Dan Whitley, CIPM, Head of Product Data & Information, Lord Abbett & Co.
Andrew Barnett, Chief Product Officer, HUB

11:45 AM ET •
Are Portfolio Managers Measuring Up?

Firms will inevitably face questions about the portfolio manager’s skills, record, and portfolio behavior. To address those concerns, IT offerings are emerging to help teams determine behavioral trends and quantify the actions of their portfolio managers. These new IT offerings can help clients better understand the skills of portfolio managers and facilitate more visibility into the decision-making processes of portfolio teams. Analytics can also help performance and client teams compare portfolio results and help firms to craft their portfolios from the start. This points to a new dynamic in portfolio behavior and can help firms improve overall performance while also drilling down into the skills and strengths of portfolio managers and investment committees. This session will focus on a variety of related concerns.

How can new tools help portfolio managers that may have been favoring losing investments for too long? What recourse do they have to adjust the portfolio?
How can these new tools help a portfolio manager work better with the clients and consultants?
What is the best team or partnership within the firm to support and review this type of analytics?
Can these new tools create a better bridge between asset owners and the firm? If so, how?

Moderator:
Daniel Carey, Head of Performance, North America, Insight Investment
Panelists:
Alex Shafran, CFA, SVP, Performance Analytics & Client Reporting, Cohen & Steers
Mark Leberknight, Head of Performance Analysis and Attribution, Vanguard
Jon Gaspar, CFA, CIPM, Managing Director, Performance, Attribution & Valuation, SLC Management

11:45 AM ET •
Different Rules for Different Regions

One of the key tasks for a global client reporting team is adjusting its external interactions, content distribution, and marketing to a region’s timelines, regulatory regime, and culture. Yet customizing reports and other content for clients in particular regions pose major challenges for firms especially as the interactions will be recurring and require frequent updates. Firms may wind up with redundant IT infrastructures serving different tech-savvy clients in key regions. In addition, they may need to offer secure portal-based, digital reporting in real time on tax policy documents, portfolios, and historical statements. While meeting all these requirements, firms are also facing the challenge of having to set themselves apart from the competition.

What are some best practices to help firms effectively manage reporting for clients in a variety of regions?
What kinds of high-level automation are available to help firms stay on top of so many moving parts and be scalable?
What must firms do to improve their workflows to stay ahead of expectations?
How can firms most effectively coordinate region specific customization, compliance, and different regulatory requirements of each region?
Would outsourcing some or all aspects of regional reporting help firms manage better?

Moderator:
Melissa Kinak, Global Head of Client Reporting, T. Rowe Price

Panelists:
Dan Gulko, Head of Performance and Client Reporting - US, HSBC Asset Management
Josh Hilbert, VP, Client Reporting, Cohen & Steers
Joe Kavanagh, Head of Performance Measurement and Risk Analysis, KBI Global Investors

1:15 PM ET • Is there skill? What does it look like?

In this talk, Dr Kate Land, the Lead Data Scientist of Inalytics will demonstrate what skill looks like, in the active fund management industry, through the lens of Decision Attribution. By connecting performance to a manager's decisions and investment process, this framework provides insight that resonates with asset managers and allocators, often proving more useful than more traditional attribution models.

Speaker:
Dr. Kate Land, Lead Data Scientist, Inalytics

1:45 PM ET • Getting Ready for the UMA Train

Unified Managed Account (UMA) platforms are hitting stride as wealth management players vie for inflows and market dominance. Part of the appeal of UMA offerings is that they encompass mutual funds, fixed income, stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), real estate, commodities, and separately managed accounts (SMAs). They can also be used for a variety of investment strategies, including alternatives, and active or passive management. Wealth management clients are demanding that firms pool many instruments yet streamline their oversight via the UMA structure. This creates lots of work for performance and client reporting teams given the layers of complexity related to UMA strategies. The shift toward UMA platforms is only getting stronger as firms are offering more new strategies and as UMA platform outsourcers attract more firms that bring with them even more strategies. This session will shine light on the impact that UMAs are having on performance and client teams.

Why are asset managers getting on the UMA train when it’s such a complicated process?
What aspects of artificial intelligence (A.I) might help with the modelling and analysis of UMA platforms?
How can performance teams help client teams create more effective fact-sheet strategy reports that accurately reflect the performance of UMA platforms?
What more can client and performance teams do to make certain that the client’s actual UMA experience matches or comes close to expectations?
What are the performance challenges in tracking UMA attribution and overall performance?
What have been the impacts of the SEC’s Marketing Rule upon UMA reporting?

Moderator:
Patrick Heffernan, Principal, Chamberlain Analytics

Panelists:
Michael Margulis, Vice President – Investment Performance & Analytics | Wealth Management Solutions, Ameriprise Financial
Lorraine Tutovic, Vice President, Cohen & Steers
Russell Newman, Former COO, Rothschild & Co.

2:35 PM ET • Getting Ready for the SEC Marketing Rule

Compliance with the SEC’s Marketing Rule is complex and many aspects of it need clarification. This exclusive session will dive into the details and provide the insight you need to move forward.

This session will focus on the latest implementation and interpretation challenges of the rule such as the SEC’s examination process and how the priorities of the SEC’s enforcement staff may affect your firm.

This will be an interactive session that can help you:

Unravel the intricacies of the rule and link them to real-world activities such as advertising;
Gather new perspectives through compliance scenarios; and
Foster collaboration and communication within your team by equipping you with the knowledge you need to navigate a new landscape with confidence.

Presenters:
Sanjay Lamba, Associate General Counsel, Investment Adviser Association
Michael Sherman, Partner, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP

2:35 PM ET •
Is External Reporting Ready for an Overhaul?

Client reporting teams are being challenged to optimize the content, the formats, and the methods of delivery for their recipients. They already must present a long list that includes standard periodic reports, AUM data, customized reports, portfolio performance data, composition updates, and risk metrics transparency. At the same time, firms are deciding how to allow external users to obtain analytics and performance data via external access portals. Client teams also need better ways to clarify that the content that they produce is relevant and is being used by clients. Just as demands for more services and support are increasing, there are IT offerings emerging to improve the client experience including facilitating the needs for sustainability data and data combinations about private and public investments. This session will focus on the best way to navigate the rapidly evolving ways that firms can reach out to clients.

What are some best practices that would help firms improve the relevancy of the portfolio and market data and analytics released externally?
How popular are portals for clients seeking performance and analytics?
What are the emerging best practices for facilitating external reporting?
How are firms addressing the security concerns and legal risks of 21^st century external reporting?
What are the best practices for a quality control framework to govern client reporting?

Moderator:
Stephanie Brown, Business Analyst | Vice President, Platform Solutions, Glenmede Trust

Panelists:
Jamie Husney, Head of Private Client Reporting, AllianceBernstein
Joe Kavanagh, Head of Performance Measurement and Risk Analysis, KBI Global Investors
Al Munro, Head of Operations, Giverny Capital Asset Management

3:45 PM ET • Time to Pick New IT Management Providers?

While artificial intelligence (A.I.) is getting a lot of attention, there are many other IT management issues that need to be addressed. For instance, firms may have legacy systems that are on track to be replaced. Other firms are looking for IT tools that help them maintain and improve quality control efforts. Firms also need IT offerings that help them better manage workflows and oversee data flows to a variety of systems and applications that aid client and performance management. Performance and client teams also need enterprise-wide systems and platforms that help with administrative and reporting tasks. This panel will focus on how firms can identify their IT needs and sharpen their vendor selection skills:

How important is it for firms to have an enterprise-wide group focused on IT architecture, which includes performance measurement/client reporting support and data governance?
What should performance and client teams include in their vendor selection and management policies?
When does it make sense to part with a provider?
What is the best way for performance and client teams to advocate for enterprise-wide systems that will serve them and other internal groups?
When does it make sense for performance and client teams have their own IT managers?

Moderator:
Jon Gaspar, CFA, CIPM, Managing Director, Performance, Attribution & Valuation, SLC Management
Panelists:
Mike Beck, VP, Performance Measurement, Glenmede
Kamelia Dari, Head of Performance Analytics & Reporting, Panagram Structured Asset Management
Shankar Venkatraman, CFA FRM, Vice President, Global Head of Investment Performance and Reporting, American Century Investments

4:30 PM ET • Riding the A.I. Wave to New Shores

The artificial intelligence (A.I.) wave is coming in many forms: machine learning, robotic process automation (RPA), ChatGPT, and cutting-edge data visualization. A.I. is disrupting the way performance and client reporting teams capture and visualize data, and then create and disseminate reports for clients. Machine learning is proving to be a major advance when performance and client teams need to capture relevant data. Firms are exploring how to use Chatbots to respond to clients. Data visualization is making storytelling by client teams more effective. Overall, A.I. is beneficial for completing repetitive processing tasks, making sense of unstructured data, and for achieving new efficiencies in performance and client reporting functions. But firms have major concerns related to data security issues and will need to create new policies, and revamp teams and skills sets. This session will focus on the benefits and trade-offs caused by A.I.

Definitions: What are A.I., ML, RPA & ChatGPT?
Are there new A.I.-based systems that could replace entry level positions once done by humans?
How have A.I. initiatives impacted a firm’s internal data usage, data security concerns, and data accuracy requirements?
How is A.I. changing data visualization and the explanation of performance attribution?
What are the legal risks of applying A.I. to client data?
How quickly will A.I. and its various extensions change performance measurement and client reporting?

Speaker:
Nayan Madhamshettiwar, Managing Director, Professional Services, First Rate

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