Best Practices

How Investment Managers Are Handling the Pandemic’s Impact

How Investment Managers Are Handling the Pandemic’s Impact
clock
3 min

This month Callan conducted a survey aimed at gauging how investment managers have been coping with the impact of COVID-19 and the subsequent quarantine on their operations, and to gather insights about their plans. As our industry navigates the uncertainty, devastation, and confusion surrounding the pandemic, we found that managers across the globe are working to develop policies and procedures that ensure a safe work environment for employees. With the vast majority of the respondents’ offices remaining closed, investment managers have successfully tested their virtual networks and business continuity plans, and they have done a significant amount of work to adjust their day-to-day operations in this new and uncertain environment.

Our survey reflects the views of 108 firms representing a wide range of ownership structures, firm sizes, assets under management, and locations. Our questions focused on office closures, subsequent plans to reopen, work-from-home policies, virtual meetings, and travel restrictions.

Among our main findings:

  • Remote work was nearly universal, with signs that it could become permanent for large fractions of managers’ workforces.
  • Office closures and reopenings varied by firm size, with a significant share of respondents uncertain of when workers might return to their desks.
  • Managers embraced video calls as a way to stay connected with clients.
  • With marketing, consultant relations, and client services professionals once spending a significant portion of their careers on airplanes, travel restrictions and bans have forced firms to explore new and creative virtual avenues for reaching their constituents.

The Office, Now and in the Future

  • Offices remained closed for 84% of the respondents.
  • 97% of respondents banned outside visitors.
  • A greater percentage of smaller firms (<$50 billion in assets under management) kept their offices open relative to larger firms, and almost one-third of the offices in the Southeast were open versus 25% or less for other regions.
  • Approximately 60% of respondents had a specified reopening date, with half of those noting July or earlier and 96% indicating they planned to reopen by mid-September.
  • A majority of smaller firms had either already opened or planned to by July, while a majority of larger firms planned to reopen in August or later.
When respondents say their office will reopen

New Work-Life Arrangements

  • The vast majority of employees were working remotely across essentially all firms regardless of firm size and location. 87% of those surveyed said that a minimum of 90% of employees were working from home.
  • Only 2% said that less than 50% of employees were working from home.
  • Just over half of the respondents anticipated that some employees will work permanently from home, with the majority of those noting that one-third or fewer employees will have this arrangement.

 

Precentage of employees wroking remotely

Virtual Meetings, and Still a Lot of Them

  • 48% of respondents conducted at least 80% of interactions with clients and consultants via video conference call in May, with firms out of the Northeast having the highest prevalence of video conference calls.
  • More than 40% of respondents conducted all of their meetings via video conference call.
  • Nearly two-thirds of respondents said the number of meetings they had in May either increased or stayed the same from the same time last year.

Most Uncertain About a Travel Restart

  • Just under half of the respondents provided an anticipated date for resumption of travel, with the majority of those targeting Sept. 8 (the Tuesday after Labor Day) or earlier.
  • 10% said they will not resume business travel until January.
  • Of those with a date for resuming travel, 68% of larger firms (>$50bn) were targeting Sept. 8 or earlier for travel resumption vs. 53% for firms with under $50bn in AUM.
  • But for the majority of respondents, the date was uncertain. And nearly half of the respondents that were uncertain about resuming business travel hailed from the Northeast.

Posted by

Share
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Related Posts
Operations

Inaugural Study Reveals How Asset Managers Incorporate DEI into Their Core Business

Laura Dawson
Callan's 2024 Asset Manager DEI Study examines how investment managers approach diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in their own firms.
ESG

The Heat Is On! Carbon-Footprinting Basics for Institutional Investors

Amit Bansal
Amit Bansal explains what carbon-footprinting means for institutional investors.
ESG

Callan Study Examines ESG Practices by Investment Managers

Kristin Bradbury
Kristin Bradbury summarizes our 2023 Asset Manager ESG Study.
Operations

Unlocking the Secrets of the 'Data Vault'

Bo Abesamis
Bo Abesamis describes the Callan "Data Vault," a repository where data is collected, cleansed, aggregated, and curated.
ESG

Green Financing in Residential Real Estate

Aaron Quach
Christine Mays and Aaron Quach explain green financing and how it can help investment managers obtain more favorable financing terms.
Private Markets

Alignment of Interests: Best Practices to Make Sure Investors and Their Managers Are in Sync

Real Assets Consulting Group
Callan expert discusses how institutional investors can make sure their interests are aligned with their private markets investment managers.
Public Markets

Why It Was a Tough 4Q21 for Large Cap Growth Managers

David Wang
David Wang analyzes the tough market environment for large cap growth investment managers in 4Q21.
Macro Trends

Is 2% Growth Good or Bad?

Jay Kloepfer
Jay Kloepfer examines GDP growth in 3Q21 and its implications for the future course of the recovery.
Macro Trends

... And We're Back! The Rebound of the U.S. Economy

Jay Kloepfer
Jay Kloepfer assesses the current state of the U.S. economy.
Operations

Three Potential Paths to a China A-Shares Allocation

Global Manager Research
We discuss three paths to implementing a China A-shares allocation.

Callan Family Office

You are now leaving Callan LLC’s website and going to Callan Family Office’s website. Callan Family Office is not affiliated with Callan LLC.  Callan LLC has licensed the Callan® trademark to Callan Family Office for use in providing investment advisory services to ultra-high net worth clients, family foundations, and endowments. Callan Family Office and Callan LLC are independent, unaffiliated investment advisory firms separately registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.

Callan LLC is not responsible for the services and content on Callan Family Office’s website. Inclusion of this link does not constitute or imply an endorsement, sponsorship, or recommendation by Callan LLC of their website, or its contents, and Callan LLC is not responsible or liable for your use of it. When visiting their website, you are subject to Callan Family Office’s terms of use and privacy policies.