Enterprising Investor

What does a total portfolio approach look like inside an investment organization? Roger Urwin, Global Head of Investment Content at Willis Towers Watson, describes how TPA functions in practice, from new roles like the Chief Total Portfolio Officer to the governance structures, data, and decision frameworks that shape portfolio-wide thinking. Speaking with Mona Naqvi, Managing Director of Research, Advocacy, and Standards at CFA Institute, he discusses the guardrails that support disciplined decision-making, the skills and mindsets required to operate across silos, and why resilience, foresight, and systems thinking are becoming core investment competencies. Listen to the episode to understand how asset owners are applying a total portfolio lens in real-world investment organizations.

Roger Urwin, Global Head of Investment Content at Willis Towers Watson, reflects on how leading asset owners are rethinking strategic asset allocation amid faster regime change, rising systemic risk, and growing complexity. In a conversation hosted by Mona Naqvi, Managing Director of Research, Advocacy, and Standards at CFA Institute, he draws on decades of experience advising global funds to explain why a total portfolio mindset is gaining traction—and how it reframes goals, governance, and investment decision-making. The discussion explores what it means to invest through a truly holistic lens, why mindset and organizational design matter as much as models, and how the investment profession may need to evolve for a more uncertain world. Listen to the episode to hear Roger Urwin's perspective on the shift from strategic asset allocation to a total portfolio approach.
 
Chapter Markers 
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
01:12 Roger Irwin's Career and Industry Background
04:02 Why Total Portfolio Approach Matters Now
04:58 Origins of Strategic Asset Allocation (SAA)
09:32 Benchmarks, Universality, and Communication Challenges
12:01 How TPA Addresses Complexity
14:47 Accessibility vs Flexibility: SAA vs TPA
16:13 Governance Trade-offs and Organizational Design
17:53 Systems Thinking and Market Disruption
19:16 Ecosystem Thinking, Reflexivity, and Risk Models
21:21 Recalibrating Investment Frameworks
22:56 Is TPA More Resilient Than SAA?
24:27 People, Incentives, and Cultural Barriers
28:49 AI, Human Intelligence, and the Future Analyst
30:46 Human + Artificial Intelligence in Investing
34:48 Managing Systemic Risk and Long-Term Horizons
40:57 Value Creation in a World of Real-Time Information
43:55 Stewardship, System-Level Investing, and Externalities
45:00 Can SAA and TPA Coexist?
47:29 Industry Momentum and What Comes Next
49:36 Closing Thoughts and Series Preview

Great management isn't a "soft skill" — it's a measurable performance lever. Ashley Herd, founder and CEO of Manager Method and author of The Manager Method: Practical Strategies to Lead with Purpose and Confidence, joins host Mike Wallberg, CFA, to unpack why communication sits at the heart of effective leadership and how small managerial choices ripple through engagement, retention, and profitability. Drawing on her experience as a lawyer, in-house leader, and advisor who has trained more than 250,000 managers, Herd explains why promoting top performers into management roles so often backfires, how leaders can avoid micromanagement without disappearing, and why her "pause, consider, act" framework helps managers handle everything from delegation to performance conversations. The discussion also explores what investors and analysts can learn about management quality by listening closely to leadership behavior — not just the numbers — and why culture and innovation are inseparable from long-term returns.
Listen to the full episode of Enterprising Investor to hear practical insights on building better managers, stronger teams, and more resilient businesses.

Anna Martirosyan, strategy and transactions manager at EY Parthenon, speaks with guest host Lotta Moberg, CFA, about the ethical foundations of AI in finance, including fairness, transparency, model governance, and the risks that arise as firms automate more decisions. Drawing on her chapter in AI in Asset Management: Tools, Applications, and Frontiers, Anna explains how practitioners can use AI responsibly while navigating evolving global regulations.
Tune in to hear their full conversation.
Read the complete book online: https://rpc.cfainstitute.org/themes/technology/ai-in-asset-management
Follow the Financial Thought Exchange podcast for more expert perspectives: https://sites.libsyn.com/545057/site

In this extended deep dive, guest host Raymond Pang, Senior Researcher at CFA Institute, speaks with Greg Fisher, CFA, about how complexity science can offer a richer lens for understanding uncertainty, market behavior, and the limitations of traditional financial models. Building on themes explored in our recent episode with Richard Bookstaber and Genevieve Hayman — including feedback loops, emergent dynamics, and the need for more adaptive approaches to risk — Fisher expands the discussion to the historical roots of the mechanistic mindset and why a systems-based perspective may benefit investment practitioners. The conversation explores how narratives, structural change, and evolving patterns shape asset prices, and how asset managers can incorporate complexity-informed insights into their research and decision-making.
Listen and follow the podcast, and explore our report Reframing Financial Markets as Complex Systems for additional insights:
https://rpc.cfainstitute.org/research/reports/2025/reframing-financial-markets-as-complex-systems.