System-level Investing Redux: 3 Videos
Over the next few months, we’ll be releasing videos from TIIP’s 5th Annual Symposium on System-level Investing, From Ambition to Action, held on April 14, 2026, to support shared learning and help all of us continue getting smarter together.
Each post will include the session description, presentation slides (where available), and video recording. If anything you see or hear sparks questions, ideas, or reflections, we’d love to hear from you. We’re always eager to learn what’s resonating—and to help unpack some of the complex concepts explored throughout the day.
Reach out to us anytime at [email protected]
State of the Industry What Markets Miss
William Burckart, CEO @ TIIP
Institutional investors are confronting a structural shift in how risk, return, and resilience are shaped. Climate instability, inequality, democratic fragility, and market concentration are no longer peripheral concerns—they are system-level forces that increasingly determine portfolio outcomes. Yet the dominant tools of modern investment practice, from MPT to ESG integration, were not designed to manage recursive, market-wide risks.
Rooted in a decade of field-building and recent work with leading asset owners, Burckart shared how system-level investing has moved from an emerging idea to an operating imperative and reflected on our central challenge: how to translate system-level ambition into repeatable governance, portfolio-wide decision-making, and durable influence on the systems that underpin long-term value creation. Click here to access the slides.
Fiduciary Duty in Focus Applying Fiduciary Duties to System-level Investing
Maurits Dolmans, Senior Counsel @ Clearly Gottlieb and George Suttles, Executive Director @ Commonfund Institute
Tools and dashboards are only actionable if they are grounded in fiduciary clarity. Maurits Dolman (Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, speaking in his own capacity) and George Suttles (Commonfund Institute) examined how fiduciary duty—properly understood—requires investors to consider risks and responsibilities that arise at the level of the financial system itself.
Drawing on trust and pension law and comparative fiduciary practice, they argued that prudence today must account for foreseeable, material systemic risks such as climate change, inequality, and financial instability. The session made the case that system-level investing is not a departure from fiduciary duty, but it’s necessary evolution in an era where long-term portfolio performance depends on system resilience. Click here to download associated slides.
Researcher’s View Reframing Financial Markets Through a Systems Lens
Genevieve Hayman, Senior Researcher @ CFA Institute Research and Policy Center
To deepen the analytical foundations introduced earlier in the day, Genevieve Hayman of the CFA Institute Research and Policy Center presented findings from her 2025 report (co-authored with Raymond Pang), “Reframing Financial Markets as Complex Systems.”
The session explored why viewing markets as dynamic, interconnected systems—rather than static, equilibrium-driven constructs—can materially improve how investors understand risk and design portfolios. Dr. Hayman introduced tools from complex systems science, including agent-based modeling and network theory, and explained how these concepts can enhance systemic risk analysis, illuminate feedback loops, and support more resilient portfolio construction. Click here to download the presentation slides.
How Will SAIL Help You In Your Journey?
Here are 4 key ways that TIIP can support you in your journey toward system-level. investing:
- First, you can become a subscriber to SAIL—the Systems Aware Investing Launchpad.
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- SAIL is our all-in-one platform for strategy development, investor analysis and reporting, designed for investors of all sizes and experiences, not just the pioneers.
- Second, if you need direct guidance we welcome you to avail yourself of our Total Portfolio suite of services:
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- Total Portfolio Activation: Assess your readiness for system-level investing and create a go forward plan
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- With Total Portfolio Implementation: TIIP provides practical tools and support for integrating system-level strategies into your policies, programs and practices
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- Lastly A Total Portfolio Review: Helps investors assess and refine their investment strategies with a systems lens. Many of these assessments have been released publicly in whole or in part as Case Studies on an investor’s journey
- Or, we also provide 5 types of playbooks to meet individual investor or coalition needs:
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- The Organization-wide System-level Investing Playbook is for the investor ready to align their entire portfolio with long-term systemic outcomes
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- The Systemic Stewardship Playbook is for those ready to take their stewardship efforts in specific to the system-level
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- The Asset Class Specific Playbook is for investors seeking a sharper strategy that reflects the unique utility of particular asset classes to contend with a specific systemic risk, or intersection of risks
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- Issue Specific Playbooks for a Targeted Geography is for those navigating a pressing issue area — or a tangle of converging risks. We diagnose the systemic dynamics at play in your priority geographic area (whether local, national, regional or global) and deliver actionable guidance tailored to you
- Capital Needs Assessment is for investors or coalitions with a stake in a specific place. We assess the capital gaps in the priority geography — city, state , region, country or area — and build a playbook for deploying capital where and how it’s needed most
- Fourth, if you’re an asset owner, consider joining the Total Portfolio and Systems Intelligence Dashboard Cohort, which kicks off on June 16th.
👉 Click here to schedule a demo of SAIL or time to explore the other options listed above or email us at [email protected].
Join the Leaders in System-Level Investing
Our expertise has helped inform and support the strategies of pioneering institutions, including CalSTRS, Domini Impact Investments, the Surdna Foundation, University Pension Plan (UPP), Wespath Benefits and Investments, and more.
Are you ready to evolve your investing approach? Together, let’s take your policies, programs, and practices to the system level.
Follow us on LinkedIn to keep up with the latest TIIP news and find out how to join the system-level investing movement. Have questions about system-level investing? Email us at [email protected].
