12th Annual Midwest Institutional Forum

Portfolio Construction - Finding the Best Opportunities in 2026: Many are calling this a new investment era with opportunities for investors that have never been seen before. Market movements, fiscal challenges, the denominator effect, and revised globalization have all created unique opportunities for investors who go well beyond the traditional 60/40 portfolio construct.

Insights from a Sound Hedge Fund Investment Strategy: Hedge funds continue to play a critical role in diversified portfolios, offering unique strategies to generate alpha, manage risk, and navigate volatile markets.

The Future of Sustainable Investing—What Will the Path to Growth Look Like?: What is the outlook for sustainable investing (including infrastructure and energy) as it evolves amidst ongoing debates around climate, labor, and other key issues? With no unified national development plan, what are innovative ways forward?

Navigating Markets in 2026: Investment Strategies and Macroeconomic Outlook: Investors are faced with the imperative challenge to construct resilient portfolios in the face of economic shifts and market volatility. The panel will shed light on the current macroeconomic landscape, providing insights into global economic trends and their potential impact on various asset classes.

The New Face of Active Quant: Active quantitative approaches to public equity investing continue to evolve and encroach on methods formerly reserved for fundamental qualitative analysis.

Fixed Income: Trends Shaping Today’s Landscape: Federal Reserve rate cuts are undetermined, but what will result from the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet and the U.S. Government’s borrowing needs?

The Equity Calculation: Evaluating its Effect on Portfolios: The equities market faces substantial influence from earnings expectations, elections and policy considerations, sector bets, slowing economies and interest rates. Will the rally continue?

Recognizing Emerging Markets’ Opportunities and Challenges: Understanding the dynamic landscape of emerging markets is crucial for allocators who want to explore the unique opportunities and challenges that come with investing in these regions. With global economic tides constantly shifting it's important to have a sound asset allocation strategy that includes emerging markets.

Navigating ESG - Considerations for a Successful Institutional Investment Strategy: Numerous institutional investors think asset managers should be more proactive in developing new ESG products. ESG has moved from being a niche consideration to a central component of strategic institutional investment.

Effectively Investing Through Private Markets; Diversification & Returns: As investors search for additional sources of revenue and methods for portfolio diversification in the volatile and changing environment, private markets stand out as an area of opportunities.

Institutional Views on Private Credit’s Growing Portfolio Utility & Importance: Great Recession-era bank regulations helped fuel the rise of private credit, as investors looked for more attractive returns. The rise is not without its challenges, and private-credit investors are preparing to face higher borrowing costs and a slower economy weighing on the margins of portfolio companies.

A ‘Future Proof’ Private Equity in 2026 and Beyond: Over the past decade, private equity has seen an increase in popularity and importance amongst institutional investors.

Insights From a Sound Hedge Fund Investment Strategy: With more than $3 trillion in assets—and the freedom to invest opportunistically worldwide—hedge funds have become an important market-moving force of the last few decades.

Recession, Rates, and the Role of Gold in Portfolios: The gold price has seen a period of recalibration and consolidation, while still outperforming global equities, bonds and other alternatives. Looking ahead, investors will likely continue to seek gold to protect against economic uncertainty, tighter monetary policies to control record inflation, and ongoing geopolitical uncertainty.

Leadership Roundtable: Decision-Making in Disruptive Times: In the midst of all this operational, cultural, and technological change, businesses must make strategic decisions on how to run and steer their firms in the face of these challenges. Leading institutional investors shed light on the most pressing investment and management issues facing their organizations.