Difference Between SAA and Investment Managers
Strategic Asset Alliance is NOT an investment management firm. We are investment consultants that advise insurers and governmental risk pools on how they can improve their investment process.
Unlike an investment manager, SAA does not manage portfolios directly and does not participate in the sector allocation decision typically made by the third-party investment managers who manage your insurer’s fixed income portfolios.
Instead, SAA will monitor the value added or subtracted from your company’s third-party investment manager. While we monitor their positioning, we do not believe that micro-managing the investment manager makes sense as part of the investment process.
In many cases, SAA will work with you and your manager to develop and implement customized benchmarks to which the investment manager is measured. Furthermore, SAA reviews manager performance information, but does not reconcile to the custodian due to the typical issues with custodian pricing.
SAA is also very involved in the transition of managers for clients. Our role is to help the client implement the manager change by working with them on the various aspects including new manager contract and guideline review, obtaining information from the incumbent manager, working with custodian on any transition issues, etc.