Risk Advisory Services

As today’s high-speed, global investment environment becomes more complex and integrated, it’s essential for plan sponsors and fiduciaries to know, with the utmost clarity, what they actually own.

Verus Risk Advisory Services is a comprehensive solution, combining our non-discretionary consulting services with a complete implementation of holdings-based risk systems, which helps sponsors understand their exposures clearly and identify the biggest sources of risk to their portfolio. This is crucial to avoiding surprises and helping fiduciaries gain greater confidence in their portfolio. Designed for large plan fund sponsors, who appreciate the importance of incorporating risk into the selection of management and supervision of their investments.

Risk Advisory Philosophy

We believe that risk is the driver of returns, and that risk can be managed, while returns cannot. Risk is not confined to measures of standard deviation or volatility; it’s also specifically about the potential loss of capital, which can be driven by a multitude of events, market-based as well as operational. Institutions typically focus on achieving returns with little discussion or knowledge of the risk incurred.

Verus professionals provide clients with a proprietary Risk Dashboard system for calculating and communicating the level and nature of portfolio risk. The team has significant experience in working with investment staff and board members to incorporate portfolio risk concepts into investment policy and monitoring processes. Our approach combines education, communication and integration:

Education: We work with investors to build a risk-centric culture that considers the risk/return trade-off in all investment decision-making.

Communication: We use our proprietary Portfolio Risk Dashboard to communicate portfolio positioning, improving and simplifying decision-making.

Integration: Verus professionals guide fiduciaries in investment policy design and construction, establishing a framework for ongoing monitoring and management to ensure that intended risks and realized risks are well aligned. We help each client develop an investment policy that identifies the organization’s risk philosophy, guidelines and procedures. This improves governance by clearly defining roles and responsibilities for risk management.