State Street Global Advisors, the firm behind the SPDR family of ETFs, has filed for a new fund that would track the UC Investments 90/10 Endowment Strategy Index. The product would essentially bottle the University of California’s investment approach and sell it to retail investors.
The concept is straightforward: roughly 90% equities, 10% bonds or cash. No exotic hedge fund allocations, no private equity sleeves, no venture capital carve-outs. Just a passive, index-based strategy modeled after one of the largest institutional investors in the country.
The UC investment model, explained
The University of California’s investment operation manages somewhere in the neighborhood of $180 to $190 billion in total assets. The combined endowment alone sits at approximately $29.5 billion, split between a $22.6 billion General Endowment Pool and a $6.9 billion Blue and Gold Endowment Pool.
Under Chief Investment Officer Jagdeep Singh Bachher, UC Investments has deliberately zigged while most of the endowment world zagged. While Harvard, Yale, and Stanford built their reputations on the so-called “endowment model,” heavy on alternative investments and illiquid assets, UC went the other direction. Public equities. Bonds. Low fees. Radical simplicity.
