NEPC 2022 DEI Progress Report: Raising the Bar for the Investment Industry

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NEPC, a leading research-driven investment consultant and OCIO provider with $1.4 trillion in assets under advisement, today published its third annual Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Progress Report, a report that aims to uncover the investment-oriented benefits of diversity, supporting NEPC’s goal of being the investment industry’s most intentional and data-driven DEI leader.

This year’s report highlights the firm’s steady progress toward NEPC’s Diverse Manager Policy goals, which were initially set in 2019. This latest report is a direct reflection of NEPC’s view that diversity, equity, and inclusion drive sustainable success for clients, employees, and communities. Diversity helps unlock a wider range of talent and ideas, ultimately ensuring that investment teams are able to meet and achieve their investment goals.

“From the outset, our goal has been to help lead change in the investment industry by emphasizing the value of transparency and metric-driven policy when it comes to DEI. To do that, we’ve remained committed to learning, growing, and thinking about diversity as an identifier of opportunity and risk, not only within our walls but externally as well, and as a differentiator to better serve our clients,” said Will Forde, Partner, Co-Chair, Diverse Manager Committee. “With well over half of our clients using Diverse Managers, we recognize the progress that we’ve made when thinking about engagement with diverse-owned and -led firms, but recognize the work that needs to be done in order to maintain and improve upon those efforts.”

NEPC’s 2022 DEI Progress Report provides insight into the firm’s DEI initiatives from a marketplace perspective. Listed below are highlights from this year’s report:

Client Exposure to Diverse Strategies

• 59% of NEPC clients use Diverse Manager(s)

• $40.4B of client's assets with Diverse Firms

• 182 client strategies managed by Diverse Firms

Increasing Diversity in NEPC’s Recommended Strategies

• Driven by the Explorer Program, a platform to identify and engage with diverse-owned and -led investment management firms that are not currently 1- or 2-rated by NEPC, the centerpiece of NEPC’s DEI program is the goal of achieving 15% Diverse Manager representation by 2024.

• NEPC achieved its initial goal of 10% Diverse Manager exposure by 2022 for OCIO accounts and is on track to achieve 15% Diverse Manager exposure by 2024.

• NEPC conducted 206 interactions with Diverse Management firms in 2022, more than 3X the interactions in 2019.

“As the conversation around increasing diversity in the investment space continues to evolve, so must our goals and how we’re thinking about DEI standards," said Mike Manning, Managing Partner. “We are proud of what we’ve accomplished thus far, but NEPC is aware of the work that remains, and is committed to identifying meaningful ways to continue engaging with diverse-owned and -led firms.”

For more information about NEPC’s sustainable solutions like its Impact Investing Committee and Diverse Manager Committee, click here. To download the full results of NEPC’s 2022 DEI Progress Report, click here.

ABOUT NEPC, LLC

NEPC is an independent investment consultant, private wealth advisor, and OCIO provider serving over 400 retainer clients and $1.4 trillion in total assets. Combining a proprietary research team dedicated to the long-term challenges facing investors with our unique client-centric model, NEPC builds forward-looking investment portfolios for institutional investors and ultra-high-net worth individuals. To learn more about NEPC, visit nepc.com.