The authors of The Endowment Model of Investing provide an overview in this chapter of the traditional versus modern methods of endowment investing as a basis for understanding diversification and managing equities for endowments today. It is meant as a brief introduction to the topic and book. Discussed is how the tradition of the long term policy portfolio with relatively fixed asset categories was at one point ubiquitous in the endowment and foundation World but how now with increased market volatility and the appearance of attractive new asset classes, this tradition of overly rigid allocations and fixed asset buckets is questioned and put into old news. The late Peter L. Bernstein was one of the earliest and most articulate authors arguing for a rethinking of the policy portfolio concept.

This chapter includes topics on:

Institutions working in a more flexible fashion with allocations

wider allocation bands

using assets that do not necessarily fit into the traditional categories