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A long-term investor seeking immediate, low-cost diversification may want to seriously consider exchange funds as a strategy, according to a paper from Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management. The paper considers the risks and benefits of exchange funds and recommends paying careful attention to the fund's issuer and structure.

Charities face a particular challenge in building and maintaining a balanced portfolio of investments that will provide a secure return. In its 12th Compendium of Investment for Charities, Sarasin & Partners provides assistance by exploring investment options and offering suggestions for how to plan a charity investment policy, put asset allocation into practice, implement an investment policy and monitor the results.

This paper investigates the case for global investing, to examine why it is that so many American investors underweight foreign stocks, and to suggest a sensible middle ground between true global investing and the current home country bias that infects most portfolios.

Deutsche Bank research suggests that microfinance is growing in attractiveness for private sector investors. The report, entitled "Microfinance: An emerging investment opportunity," represents the first formal research paper on microfinance investments produced by a major financial institution. The study suggests that microfinance will evolve into a niche investment product that will increasingly attract both retail and institutional investors.

Family offices have been increasing their allocations to private equity and this trend is likely to continue, according to a new study by the European Venture Capital and Private Equity Association and the IMD Business School of Lausanne. The average allocation to private equity by the offices interviewed was 12 per cent, with the highest commitment being close to 50 per cent. On the fund investment side, there is a strong preference for buy-out funds.

Investors can win bigger profits in commodity futures trading by keeping a close eye on inventory, according to a research paper available though Knowledge@Wharton. The research shows how to gauge inventory levels by looking at the relationship between prices of commodities on the futures market and in the cash market, where they are sold for immediate delivery.

ADRs, or American depository receipts, have given U.S. investors access to the common stocks of multinationals, but is an ADR-only account the best way to invest internationally? Fortigent examines that question in this white paper, concluding that high net worth investors also should consider limited partnerships and mutual funds with competitive fees.

The authors contend that there is a better approach than the Sharpe ratio or mean variance optimization (MVO) with respect to hedge fund portfolio analysis: the Omega equation. In their view the equation that adds to mean and variance, captures all of the higher moment information in the return distribution, incorporates sensitivity to return levels, and is intuitive and relatively easy to calculate.

Pre-IPO investing is one of the themes in the market today. There are in London many, many firms dedicated to the sales of shares in this area. It is often said that pre-ipo investing should be avoided as anything worth buying does not need to be sold.

This paper will examine ways to lessen six of the greatest risks to preserving and enjoying multigenerational wealth. These six risks are: concentrating your assets, overspending, overusing leverage, poor tax planning, not attending to liabilities, ignoring family governance