Asset manage­ment with fore­sight and purpose

Luzius Neubert is a part­ner and member of the manage­ment team at PPCme­trics. As a long-stan­ding lectu­rer, spea­ker and frequent panelist, he is one of the most promi­nent voices on asset and invest­ment stra­te­gies in the non-profit sector. Luzius Neubert came to phil­an­thropy by chance. During his studies in econo­mics with a focus on finance, he came across an article by a profes­sor at the Univer­sity of Fribourg on the orga­niza­tio­nal capi­tal of non-profit orga­niza­ti­ons. “I have always had a soft spot for these topics,” says Luzius Neubert. Howe­ver, at the time, there was virtually no lite­ra­ture on finan­cial manage­ment in the third sector. Neubert ther­e­fore deci­ded to dedi­cate his disser­ta­tion to this field. He analy­zed finan­cial reports, conduc­ted surveys and thus became acquain­ted with the diver­sity of non-profit orga­niza­ti­ons. “It was very inte­res­t­ing to see: How much assets do NPOs have, how much reser­ves, how do they invest their money?”

Neubert joined PPCme­trics in 2007, right after comple­ting his docto­rate. “I never thought I would stay for so long,” he says. “I’m still just as moti­va­ted as I was on the first day.” This is not only due to the variety of the work, but also to the many satis­fied custo­mers. But the friendly working atmo­sphere at PPCme­trics is also a reason why Luzius Neubert has remained loyal to the company to this day. “We talk to each other and pull toge­ther. There are no offi­cial chan­nels or depart­mental boun­da­ries that would prevent us from finding the best solu­tion for our custo­mers,” says Neubert. Hier­ar­chies also play a minor role: “We all bene­fit from the exper­tise of the others and really act as a team.”

Lawy­ers for econo­mic issues

PPCme­trics is a Swiss invest­ment consul­ting company that advi­ses endow­ment funds, non-profit orga­ni­sa­ti­ons and insti­tu­tio­nal and private inves­tors. Unlike asset mana­gers, the consul­tants repre­sent the inte­rests of their clients inde­pendently. “We are a kind of lawy­ers for the econo­mic issues of our clients,” explains Luzius Neubert. “Inves­tors thus ensure that they only take risks where it is wort­hwhile, that they choose compe­ti­tive asset mana­gers and that someone evalua­tes their perfor­mance independently.”

In the case of PPCme­trics, the consul­ting services include the deve­lo­p­ment of invest­ment stra­te­gies, the selec­tion of asset mana­gers and custo­dian banks, and ongo­ing support for clients. There are no stan­dard solu­ti­ons. “The consul­ting services are always very indi­vi­dual. I can work ever­y­thing out with the clients,” says Neubert. The aim is not to dictate to clients, but to focus on the purpose of the foun­da­tion. “We don’t want to force anyone into anything,” says Neubert, “but we do explain the conse­quen­ces of the decisions.”

This is parti­cu­larly important for non-profit orga­niza­ti­ons. “The biggest diffe­rence between grant-making foun­da­ti­ons or NPOs and insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors such as pension funds is their hete­ro­gen­eity,” says Neubert. There are grant-making foun­da­ti­ons whose boards of trus­tees are made up of bankers or trus­tees. Other foun­da­ti­ons are poli­ti­cally posi­tio­ned. Others have opera­tio­nal busi­nesses in which certain world views or values play a central role. These diffe­ren­ces also affect asset manage­ment, for exam­ple in terms of risk appe­tite, sustaina­bi­lity crite­ria or the amount of flexi­bi­lity a foun­da­tion wants to have in terms of imple­men­ta­tion. In contrast, the invest­ment stra­te­gies of pension funds are more homo­ge­neous: “They have clear legal requi­re­ments, a certain risk capa­city and often compa­ra­ble objec­ti­ves. The range of opti­ons is much broa­der for foun­da­ti­ons. This is precis­ely what makes the advice so challenging.”

Navi­ga­ting Uncer­tain Times

Luzius Neubert is fami­liar with the diffe­rent needs of his clients: “In 18 years, I have lear­ned to sense what people want.” For him, this also means that he respects the decis­i­ons of his clients, even if they differ from his own assess­ment. “My goal is always to find a solu­tion that is as good as possi­ble for the speci­fic foun­da­tion – and not to make recom­men­da­ti­ons that will ‘die a good death’. In other words, to recom­mend solu­ti­ons that are theo­re­ti­cally perfect but are very likely to be rejec­ted by the foun­da­tion board.” Howe­ver, if foun­da­tion boards deviate from the recom­men­da­ti­ons of PPCme­trics, Neubert considers it important that they are aware of the advan­ta­ges and disad­van­ta­ges of their decisions.

At PPCme­trics, Neubert not only helps foun­da­ti­ons manage their assets, but also acts as a spar­ring part­ner on a whole range of stra­te­gic issues. Sustaina­bi­lity, geopo­li­ti­cal uncer­tainty and the long-term respon­si­bi­lity of capi­tal are issues that preoc­cupy clients and shape the advice they receive. “We regu­larly attend meetings of the foun­da­tion board or invest­ment commit­tee at many foun­da­ti­ons,” says Neubert. “It is an important part of our role to assess geopo­li­ti­cal and finan­cial market events for our clients and to iden­tify any poten­tial need for action.” At the moment, deve­lo­p­ments on the finan­cial markets, parti­cu­larly in the USA, are caus­ing uncer­tainty for many inves­tors. As a consul­tant, he moni­tors these deve­lo­p­ments and focu­ses on long-term scena­rios in the invest­ment stra­tegy. Using a speci­ally deve­lo­ped model, PPCme­trics enables grant-making foun­da­ti­ons to conti­nuously moni­tor their capi­tal deve­lo­p­ment and align their invest­ment stra­tegy and grant volume accordingly.

In addi­tion, the Swiss­Foun­da­ti­ons Bench­mark Report, which PPCme­trics produ­ces every year in colla­bo­ra­tion with Swiss­Foun­da­ti­ons, provi­des the most important key figu­res on the invest­ment acti­vi­ties of grant-making foun­da­ti­ons. Around 84% of Swiss grant-making foun­da­ti­ons now take sustaina­bi­lity crite­ria into account when inves­t­ing their assets. “In recent years, we have helped many foun­da­ti­ons to deve­lop a sustaina­bi­lity concept tail­o­red to their purpose and to trans­late this into a prac­ti­cal invest­ment stra­tegy and imple­men­ta­tion plan,” says Neubert. Sustaina­bi­lity issues are not easy to deal with in two respects: if you are not careful, the result is a port­fo­lio that is not suffi­ci­ently diver­si­fied, and the manage­ment of which can also be extre­mely expen­sive. “You also have to be careful because sustaina­bi­lity issues are often poli­ti­cal issues on which the foun­da­tion board does not always agree,” says Neubert. The key here is to remain true to the foundation’s purpose.

More than just finan­cial management

For Luzius Neubert, invest­ment consul­ting is far more than just finan­cial manage­ment. It is a job that directly contri­bu­tes to the realiza­tion of chari­ta­ble goals: “I find meaningful work very important. With PPCme­trics, we help endow­ment foun­da­ti­ons to be finan­ci­ally stable in the long term, to stick to their invest­ment stra­tegy, to avoid paying exces­sive fees and to choose invest­ment solu­ti­ons that bene­fit them more than others.” Since the intro­duc­tion of the Swiss Foun­da­tion Code in 2005, Neubert has obser­ved that Swiss foun­da­ti­ons are incre­asingly mana­ging their capi­tal more consciously and profes­sio­nally. Tenders for asset mana­gers, invest­ment stra­te­gies and invest­ment control­ling are now standard. 

Nevert­hel­ess, Neubert warns against gene­ra­liza­ti­ons and stan­dard recipes. “The type of foun­da­tion, its purpose, the size of its assets and the history of each foun­da­tion must conti­nue to play a role,” he says. Howe­ver, he beco­mes criti­cal when indi­vi­dua­lity is used as an excuse: “I some­ti­mes have to smile when board members of foun­da­ti­ons refer to their indi­vi­dua­lity as a way of cove­ring up a lack of profes­sio­na­lism.” For him, profes­sio­na­lism means that the foun­da­tion board knows the levers of invest­ment acti­vity and choo­ses them consciously. For Neubert, it is always about the foundation’s mission: “I work every day to ensure that foun­da­ti­ons can fulfill their chari­ta­ble purpose in the long term, as inten­ded by the donor.”

Invest­ment manage­ment digi­tal – Bench­marks & Perfor­mance

How can invest­ment results be correctly asses­sed and used for stra­te­gic decis­i­ons? The webi­nar “Bench­marks & Perfor­mance” shows how foun­da­ti­ons can compare their perfor­mance, create trans­pa­rency and further deve­lop their invest­ment stra­tegy in a targe­ted manner. Experts from the Zurich Canto­nal Bank and PPCme­trics will explain what meaningful compa­ri­son figu­res can achieve and where their limits lie, using the SwiPhiX and other bench­marks as examp­les.

Free Webi­nar
Part of the webi­nar series “Invest­ment manage­ment digi­tal“
With experts from the Zürcher Kanto­nal­bank and PPCme­trics
2 March 2026, 4:00 to 5:00 p.m.

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