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We face tremendous challenges today. The forces of globalization and modern consumerism are straining our planet’s resources. As production efficiencies increase through technology and human experience, prices decline thus enabling consumption of more goods by more people worldwide. In developing countries, as people migrate from farms to cities, their demand for food, water, housing, transportation and electricity increases dramatically.

Impact investing has taken many forms over the years. In its earliest form, religious pension plans used negative screening to avoid sin stocks. Later, environmental and political activists would use shareholder proposals to demand that companies reduce pollution or otherwise improve their operations. Today, Wall Street and investors of all types are embracing impact investing. This report takes a look at the total assets under management in the U.S. and what it means to private equity investors for the first quarter of 2015.

An approach to investing called RSI—“responsible, sustainable and impact investing”—seeks to create both financial return as well as positive social or environmental impacts that are actively measured. This white paper explains how families can connect philanthropic vision with investing strategy through RSI.

Chief Investment Officer David Donabedian recaps the first half of 2015 and provides an outlook for economic activity and financial markets in the third quarter of the year.

While once considered “mysterious,” characterized by investor misconceptions and thoroughly debated after the global financial crisis, hedge funds at their core remain a fairly simple structure with a flexible investment mandate. This white paper debunks myths about hedge funds and explains how they generate profits.

Hedge Funds in the Current Environment: Mercer believes that now is a good time to consider (or reconsider) hedge fund investing. This article explores the case for hedge funds with a focus on the current environment. Mercer also offers some thoughts on choosing the best hedge funds and how to build robust portfolios.

Mercer’s Research Perspectives covers a wide variety of investment topics. This edition includes a discussion on liquid alternative investments, actively managed global small-cap equities, features our new study on climate change, introduces the Chinese bond market and closes with an interview with Stefan Hepp who joined Mercer through the acquisition of SCM, a private markets research firm headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland.

In this paper, Cara Lafond explores family office characteristics and makes recommendations for asset allocation strategies that ensure growth of assets and preservation of capital and purchasing power, two goals that have been identified as important to most family offices. She emphasizes the importance of downtown risk mitigation and argues that seeking consistent returns and avoiding losses is more important than pursuing outsized gains.

The decision to sell or continue ownership of a family business is complex. Business owning families who recognize early the importance of both the financial and non-financial considerations of a potential sale are more likely to make good transition decisions.

Clients often hire domestic staff for help managing a large family and household. But for the affluent homeowner, there are significant risks associated with retaining employees such as babysitters, elder-caregivers, and housekeepers, to name just a few. When hiring domestic workers, it’s important to consider and address the risks involved, which are discussed in this article from Marsh Private Client Services.