Investment Management Services

The vendor is required to provide applicable services including, but not limited to, labor, materials, supervision, equipment, incidentals, and related items necessary to provide an investment advisory/consultant that acts as an investment manager.
- They will have full discretion to make all investment decisions for the assets placed under their control while observing and operating within the college’s policies and guidelines and adhering to prudent investment practices for public funds.
- Primary financial objectives:
1. Safety: 
•    The foremost objective is the preservation of principal. Investments shall be conducted in a manner that ensures the safety of capital across the overall portfolio.
2. Liquidity: 
•    The portfolio will be structured to maintain sufficient liquidity to meet all reasonably anticipated operational needs of the college.
3. Return on investment: 
•    The portfolio shall be managed with the goal of achieving a market rate of return over time, consistent with the college’s risk tolerance and liquidity requirements throughout economic cycles.
- General Expectations
1. Fiduciary responsibility: 
•    Serve as a fiduciary for this engagement. 
•    Accepting responsibility for the stewardship of the college’s assets. 
•    The firm shall act with undivided loyalty and the highest standard of care, placing the college’s interests above all others in the performance of services under the contract.
2. Proactive communication: 
•    Notify the college of any significant changes in economic outlook, investment strategy, or other material factors that may affect the portfolio’s investment objectives.
3. Quality of service: 
•    Provide best-in-class investment advisory services, supported by a demonstrated history of performance excellence. 
•    Offerors should include metrics such as client satisfaction ratings, performance benchmarks, or industry recognitions to support this claim.
4. Relevant experience: 
•    Demonstrate extensive institutional experience, managing assets for higher education, or similar public-sector clients. 
•    Offerors should provide metrics such as years of service, number of comparable clients, and total assets under management for such clients.
5. Strategic oversight: 
•    Evaluate and provide recommendations on asset allocation strategy, supported by data and analysis that align with the college’s objectives and risk profile.
6. Custodial and safekeeping services: 
•    Provide or coordinate custodial and safekeeping services, including secure asset storage, interest collection, security redemption, and trade settlement.
•    Offerors should describe the scope and scale of these services and identify any third-party custodians used.
7. Due Diligence and Ethics: 
•    Maintain a well-defined due diligence process and uphold strong ethical standards when evaluating funds, fund managers, and investment strategies. 
•    Offerors should outline their evaluation criteria and governance practices.
8. Client retention and stability: 
•    Demonstrate a history of low client turnover, which reflects strong client satisfaction and relationship stability. 
•    Offerors should include historical client retention rate over the past 5 years. 
- Services include:
1. Reporting: 
•    Provide quarterly investment performance reports and ensure access to monthly reports, including online access for monitoring daily account activity.
2. Policy and strategy review: 
•    Conduct an annual review of the college’s investment policy and a semiannual review of its investment strategy. 
•    Advise the college on opportunities to enhance investment safety and returns.
3. Portfolio monitoring: 
•    Review the composition of the college’s investment portfolio quarterly to ensure compliance with the college’s investment policy, internal guidelines, and the code state.
4. Manager selection: 
•    Conduct searches for external money managers as needed and develop customized investment solutions aligned with the college’ objectives.
5. Account size and capacity: 
•    Demonstrate the ability to manage accounts with balances under $50 million, with the capacity to accommodate additional funds as they become available.
7. Regulatory reporting: 
•    File any required reports with the commonwealth’s auditor of public accounts (APA) and comply with all applicable state reporting requirements.
8. Year-end financial support: 
•    Provide the college and the APA with year-end information necessary for the preparation of financial statements and footnotes – at no cost to either party. 
•    At a minimum, the following information must be disclosed for each investment:
1.    Original cost
2.    Date of purchase
3.    Maturity date 
4.    Interest
5.    Credit rating (if applicable)
6.    Period-end market value
7.    Interest earnings for the fiscal year
8.    Accrued interest
9.    Investment fees.

- Contract Period/Term: 2 years
- Pre-Proposal Conference, Questions Date: August 4, 2025