Bio-Folio

Efficient portfolio management as an effective way of protecting species.

A report published by Gerling Insurance.

How should world's biggest asset be managed?
This is one of the questions this report addresses.

Successful Asset Management must diversify - this is not a new finding but a phenomenon experienced asset managers have described for a long time:

Believe me no, I thank my fortune for it-
My ventures are not in one bottom trusted,
Nor to one place; nor is my whole estate
Upon the fortune of this present year:
Therefore my merchandise makes me not sad.

(Merchant Antonio in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice)

The underlying theory, portfolio theory, was developed about 50 years ago. Portfolio theory has had a lasting impact on the way assets but also insurance risks are managed today. Today every professional asset manager uses portfolio theory.

The diversity of genes, species and eco-systems, in short biodiversity, is the world's biggest asset. Nevertheless portfolio theory is not used. This is unfortunate. In agriculture e.g. portfolios are constructed, which are that mis-balanced that no professional investment adviser would ever recommend his clients a similar stock portfolio.