Episode summary
Meet the OCIOs - Anne Marie Schultz from Mercer
The Solutions Scoop
· · Guests: Anne Marie Schultz, Amanda Tepper
Summary
The discussion centers on how Mercer thinks about solutions and OCIO as part of a continuum, not a single product category. The guest argues that clients increasingly want a mix of advice, custom capability, and full delegation depending on the asset pool, governance model, and internal constraints. She distinguishes solutions from OCIO by emphasizing that some clients want help on specific complex problems without surrendering final decision-making, while others want the provider to handle everything except strategic decisions and risk appetite.
She says demand is being driven by three forces: complexity, crisis, and constraints. Complexity comes from the growth of alternatives and more complicated portfolios; crisis shows up when organizations need decisive support in stressed markets; and constraints reflect limited staff time and governance bandwidth. In her view, the best OCIO relationships are judged by enterprise outcomes first, not by alpha, especially for clients facing payroll, debt covenants, or other real-world obligations.
The conversation also covers Mercer’s acquisition strategy and how client value can come from added capabilities, lower cost, and better risk management. Looking ahead, she expects private markets, private credit, infrastructure, and AI-linked capital allocation to keep pushing investors toward more holistic solutions over the next five years.
Key takeaways
- Anne Marie Schultz says client demand for solutions and OCIO is being driven by three forces: complexity, crisis, and constraints.
- She argues that OCIO success should be measured by enterprise outcomes, not alpha, when clients need liquidity or operational support.
- Schultz says Mercer is using acquisitions to add capabilities that can lower cost, reduce risk, and broaden access for clients.
- She expects private markets, private credit, infrastructure, and AI-related investing to keep increasing the need for holistic investment partners.
- The host says Chestnut’s framework treats service, operations, and investments as all necessary parts of provider evaluation.
Notable quotes
“I would say there's there's three fundamental drivers and and then they vary a little differently maybe by by client type for example the three fundamental drivers have been I'll call complexity crisis and constraints”
“solutions is emerging as a space in between recognizing that there are some parts of the market that um or the investment universe where maybe a total portfolio solution that sits on top of that”
“a good outcome is defined by the enterprise right it is not defined by alpha in OCIO because at any given day right the series of decisions that you need to make alpha is not the factor”
“I think it's just going to encourage more and more um investors to hopefully look at the total opportunity set and ultimately seek a partner who can help them to navigate it”
How the episode opens
Hello and welcome to the solutions scoop. I'm Ravi Vancatraman
And I'm Amanda Ter. Ravi and I are co-founders of the Chestnut Solutions Institute, an independent forum dedicated to advancing the future of the investment solutions industry. Here at the scoop, we examine the latest solutions marketplace developments and speak directly with solutions industry leaders.
Our guests span the investment ecosystem from OCIOS to asset owners, investment consultants, asset managers, and other key industry stakeholders. These conversations are an important part of the institute's mission to improve transparency and help establish standards and best practices across the solutions industry by educating asset owners, providers, and all other industry stakeholders. Let's get to today's scoop.
Hello solution scoopers. Today we're having an executive conversation with the business leader of one of the largest investment solutions and OCIO businesses in the world, Ann Marie Schultz, the US investments commercial leader at Mercer. Ann and I are going to be discussing some really important and timely issues around the industry.
But before we start, let me just tell you a little bit about Anmarie's background. Anmarie Schultz is a partner at Mercer and she is responsible for driving growth in the US across investment tools, advice, and solutions for all of Mercer's clients with a particular focus on non-retirement segments. Before joining Mercer, Anmarie was a managing director of BlackRock where she served as the head of the health care group working closely with hospitals largely on OCIO and investment solutions mandates and before that she worked with insurers there.
Earlier in her career, Anmarie worked in management consulting advising both asset managers and asset owners and of course that's experience we have a lot of respect for here at Chestnut since we do that too. And on top of all of that, Ann Marie has worked closely with us here at the Chestnut Solutions Institute, helping develop standards for evaluating solutions providers, which Ann and I are going to talk about.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- custom investment solutions
- strategic acquisitions
- solutions industry outlook
- ocio demand
- investment tools and advice
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Mercer
Watch the episode
Watch “Meet the OCIOs - Anne Marie Schultz from Mercer” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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