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Alternative Investments Forum
The Alternative Investments Forum (AIF) is an independent economic think tank focusing on institutional investment policy. AIF works with institutional investors and their senior investment staff and boards to help them achieve their investment objectives.

AIF engages the world's largest institutional investors (pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, foundations, insurance companies, health care organizations, and family offices) in investment discussions in person through a series of regional roundtables and online globally through applied research webinars and other interactive initiatives. AIF draws its membership from a range of leading investment management firms by asset class, strategy and size. It employs advisory boards representing the key constituents and thought leaders in the institutional investment process: academics, investment consultants, institutional investors, and trustees/board members.

Mission:
The mission of AIF is to foster education, communication and information exchange among institutional investors globally to help them achieve their investment objectives. History: AIF was founded as a think tank in 2008 by Brant Maller - in New York City - at the behest of a number of institutional investors and their investment managers and consultants following his moderation of an alternative investments session in 2007 at a National Association of State Treasurers conference. AIF’s focus on alternative investments education and identification of best practices came directly from experience that Mr. Maller had had as a voting board member of the nation’s third largest pension plan, New York State Common Retirement Fund. There he saw the need for thoughtfully “taking the 30,000 foot view and delegating greater authority to staff” to avoid excess board/trustee involvement in specific investment decisions. Trustees/board members needed to know enough to cast an intelligent vote but not bog staff down unnecessarily and become an obstructionist or impediment. He also recognized the many communication challenges that major investors were experiencing and the need for a controlled forum in which they could share best ideas and practices.

Membership:
AIF facilitates discussions among the spectrum of institutional investors – public, corporate and multiemployer (union) pension plans, foundations and endowments, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, healthcare organizations, and large family offices, all with several billions of dollars to invest and an interest in alternatives. Core groups of AIF members come from private equity, hedge and real estate fund managers.

Institutional Investment Sector - Key Challenges / Focus of AIF:
AIF has gained a strong foothold with the domestic public pension plans. AIF Academic Advisory Board Chair Josh Lerner Ph.D. – Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking at the Harvard Business School – observed that there is a tremendous appetite among public pension Chief Investment Officers (CIOs) for education. That is because many investors are understaffed and have limited travel budgets. Moreover, many public plan boards are not comprised of investment professionals, and the members have limited ability to assess investment risk. There has also been heightened sensitivity to the use of alternative investments by public pension funds in the media. Newspaper articles have suggested that alternative investments are less transparent, pricier and riskier than their traditional counterparts, and they have highlighted the risk because public pension plan liabilities are backstopped by taxpayer dollars. AIF helps investors consider whether certain types of alternative investments can boost portfolio returns - to help them hit mandated annual target return rates and pay promised benefits -- while mitigating risk through diversification and reduced volatility. AIF takes the CIO perspective. It encourages investment managers to view themselves and their strategies in the context of the CIO’s entire portfolio – not simply within their own asset class – and to understand how they interrelate with the portfolio’s other asset classes.

External Links:
•	Official website

Categories:
•	Political and economic think tanks in United States