EnnisKnupp is a Chicago-based consulting firm that provides full-service, results-oriented advice to institutional investors. The firm was founded in 1981 by Richard Ennis and James Knupp, who had previously founded the first consulting practice at A. G. Becker (the forerunner of SEI).
The firm’s only business is now and has always been investment consulting, so no other businesses compete for our resources or present conflicts of interest to our recommendations.
EnnisKnupp is owned entirely by 37 of its key professionals. Only current, active employees can be shareholders of the firm. We believe that distributing the firm’s ownership among active senior professionals fosters a vested interest in maintaining close client relationships and allows us to attract and retain the best people possible.
We serve a diverse client base including not-for-profit organizations, foundations, and other endowed institutions as well as corporate, public, and jointly trusteed retirement funds. We currently serve 160 retainer clients with combined assets of more than $1 trillion.
EnnisKnupp possesses a rich heritage of being an early advocate of ideas designed to enhance the returns and efficiency of clients’ investment portfolios. The following is a high-level recap of the major innovations which EnnisKnupp has championed since its founding in 1981:
- Use of indexation in institutional investment portfolios
- Advocacy of small cap stocks as an important component of a
well-diversified portfolio
- Recommendation of the inclusion of real estate in institutional investment portfolios
- Advocacy of international stocks as an effective diversification tool
- Recommendation of multi-asset class strategies
- Initiation of global Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) asset allocation
- Published article debunking the utility of non-dollar-denominated bonds
- Advocacy of private equity as an important element of a
well-diversified portfolio
- Neutralization of style bias in institutional investment portfolios
- Developed an analytical framework for measuring and managing active risk
- Published article outlining the case for whole stock portfolios
- Published article cautioning about the use of hedge fund-of-funds
- Described the “myth” that active small-cap stock investing is an easy source of value-added
- Advocacy of active global equity strategies
- Published article regarding construction and use of
performance-based fees
- Showed that “enhanced indexing” is simply traditional active management under another name, and offers no inherent advantage
- Advocated a shift in investors’ equity allocations toward a market weight to stocks outside the home country
- Advocated investment in infrastructure
- Advocacy of investing in frontier equity markets
- Advocated currency as an opportunity for skilled active managers
- Introduction of Universal Asset Allocation