John Crabb

Family offices are significantly more skeptical about sustainable investing than pensions, endowments and other institutions, according to the second annual Institutional Investor Global Asset Management Survey.

Institutional investors plan to increase ETF allocations over the next year, according to data from Brown Brothers Harriman's annual ETF survey. But in a crowded marketplace, buyers said they need to be more selective about which managers and products they choose.

Those of you who are active on the European family office scene will likely have come across Ian Prideaux at some stage, whether at an event, on the road or at his base in London. The former CIO of Grosvenor, the family office of the Duke of Westminster, passed away at the age of 68 on January 24 while competing in a ski race in Switzerland.Friends said he died as he lived, pushing himself to the very edge, while competing in the longest and largest downhill amateur ski race in the world.

U.S.-listed inflation-linked bond ETFs have seen net inflows in 12 of the last 13 months. Collectively, these ETFs have attracted $12 billion over that period, with $1.3 billion this month alone.Over that same stretch, investors have pulled a combined $5 billion from riskier assets such as bank loans, emerging‑market debt, and high-yield bonds — a divergence that underscores a broad move into defensive bond exposures as price swings pick up across markets.

Issuance of securitized bonds backed by data centers has grown rapidly in recent years as developers turn to the structure to finance the infrastructure underpinning artificial intelligence. A Charles River analyst report estimates issuance has grown from $2.6 billion in 2020 to more than $14 billion annually by 2026.

AI has the potential to improve how private credit loans are valued, but adoption among managers remains limited, despite strong interest. A recent report from Apex Group shows strong demand from private credit firms for more frequent and responsive pricing for internal use, with respondents citing liquidity insights, reporting accuracy, and risk monitoring as potential benefits.

The Acker family, the descendants of the founder of Sleepy’s, a mattress brand founded in Brooklyn, New York, in 1931, sold their remaining stake in the company as part of a sale to Mattress Firm in 2016.That liquidity event came with a clear mandate: the money from the sale of the generational family business should be spent to support everyone in the family.

The Public Investment Fund will anchor a new State Street Investment Management ETF strategy focused on the Saudi Arabian equity market. The State Street Saudi Arabia Enhanced Active Equity UCITS ETF, listed in Frankfurt and London, will be the manager’s second PIF-anchored ETF, and the fifth fund globally backed by the sovereign wealth fund. Other Saudi-focused ETF products are listed on exchanges across Asia and Europe.

Regulatory changes are prompting institutional investors to increase exposure to digital assets — but they’re being cautious and investing through products rather than going direct.A March report from EY-Parthenon and Coinbase shows that three quarters of surveyed investors plan to increase digital asset allocations this year, with 29 percent of those planning for that allocation to comprise more than a 5 percent share of their portfolio.

As clients change how they seek information, wealth managers are entering a race to control when and where clients access advice.