With more than two decades of financial industry experience and a diverse international background, Aoifinn Devitt plays an integral role in establishing Moneta Group’s long-term investment vision, philosophy, and strategies. Moneta is a retail and institutional investment advisor with approximately $32 billion in assets under management.
As the firm’s first female chief investment officer, Devitt joined Moneta in 2021, bringing with her extensive experience in working with institutional clients and alternative investments as well as overall portfolio oversight functions. With stops in London, Hong Kong, New York City and now Chicago, her global experience has helped open her mind and introduce her to new investing perspectives.
Alternatives Watch recently asked Devitt to share a few of her thoughts on her CIO role, her outlook on the current investment environment and on alternative assets.
AW: You have decades of investment experience and multiple perspectives. What in your view makes today’s markets particularly challenging?
Devitt: I have always found market environments challenging—they have become saturated with sophisticated investors with money to move quickly, so pockets of opportunity do not open for very long, and there is always a certain amount of foraging for underappreciated investment ideas required. Today it is particularly challenging because we are in midst of a shifting of the macro drivers that have altered the appeal of bonds, made the question of using non-U.S. investing almost existential, and rendered everything subject to a far higher hurdle—inflation. The short news cycles and large amounts of capital that are moving around (for example, in and out of money market funds and, largely, into (and not yet out of) sustainable equity funds) makes the time frame of response for an investor quite short.
AW: In your role at Moneta, what are you doing when it comes to managing risk and maintaining positive returns for portfolios?
Devitt: We are ensuring that our portfolios are all weather, which means, to us, having broad-based exposure across bonds and equity as well as in diversifiers such as real assets, private equity, and private credit. Each of these asset class buckets is itself well diversified by investment type to maintain a broad range of return drivers in a portfolio. We remain wary of leverage and concentration.
AW: The industry has enjoyed your exclusive interviews as part of the FiftyFaces* podcast. What have you learned from those interviews and what impact has that project had on your work?
Devitt: The project has had a tremendous impact on not just my work but how I interact with the world in every aspect of my life. My innate curiosity is like a muscle—the more I practice it the stronger it gets. I love to ask people about what motivates them, about what drove their choices, about their reflections on decisions made, lessons learned and what wisdom they would pass on to the next generation if they could. I realized that everyone has a story worth telling, and that listening more in life is the key not only to build trust, but to truly be present and to understand what drives others. I understand now that most careers are not straight-line trajectories, and that attitude and mindset—believing you can, you belong, you matter—is so important to staying the course in a career in finance, an area which is notorious for its volatility.
* Devitt hosts Fiftyfaces Podcast, Fiftyfaces Breakout Rooms and is co-host of Fiftyfaces Focus Podcasts.
AW: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) has been in focus for you. What should investors be doing now to further advance this effort?
Devitt: Above all, investors must be focused on broadcasting the appeal of our industry and why it can be the backdrop to a career filled with learning, reward, and personal growth. We need to ensure our pipelines are robust and that our younger colleagues can thrive and progress through the ranks. We need to elevate diverse role models to do this, and to strive to create new ways of networking so diverse colleagues also feel comfortable in this setting. The Fiftyfaces Hub features more than 200 inspiring role models and I have also enjoyed affinity groups such as WAVE, GAIN (Girls are Investors), Girls Who Invest, and industry groups such as the Chicago Economic Club.
AW: What is your expectation for alternative investments in the years to come?
Devitt: Year to date in 2022 has been particularly difficult for the traditional balanced portfolio due to the selloffs in both bonds and equities. We have consistently recommended allocations to alternatives, and it has been these portfolios that have performed more strongly in recent months. This is not only due to the differing valuation timing (i.e., less mark to market) but also because sometimes cash flows have been timed favorably and have offered opportunities to rebalance when other valuations were under pressure. I expect that we will continue to allocate increasingly to this area, particularly as more products become available that are suitable for Qualified Purchasers and Accredited Investors. Currently we are particularly interested in broad-based private equity strategies, which have sustained appeal when under the stewardship of blue chip managers, as well as private credit and real asset strategies.
AW: What do the mega multi-strategy alternative investment firms need to know about the RIA market?
Devitt: That it is growing in sophistication and needs to be treated like the most knowledgeable institutional investor they know; this means more sophisticated and meaningful presentation materials. They should bring their best products with suitable structures and favorable fees.
AW: What was the last book you read and what did you glean from it?
Devitt: I enjoyed the book Range by David Epstein, which has the subtitle: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. For me, this book validated something I have always believed in, which is that reasoning by analogy and drawing similarities across multiple disciplines is not only key to understanding an area and rendering the complex simple, but also to connecting with diverse people from diverse backgrounds and learning what it is that unites us.
I have had a very varied career, including time as a lawyer, as an investment consultant and as an investment banker before becoming a CIO. I have worked as an entrepreneur, which almost defies specialization, because so many different skills are needed. I have also worked globally and finding commonalities and shared values across multiple disciplines has been key to navigating what has been a very rewarding part of my career.
