The Total Portfolio Approach (TPA) is a forward-looking investment strategy that marks a significant evolution from the traditional Strategic Asset Allocation (SAA) model. Rather than managing asset classes in isolation with fixed benchmarks, TPA takes a holistic, dynamic, and goal-oriented view of the portfolio. It aims to optimise overall outcomes by integrating all investment opportunities in alignment with the fund’s broader objectives.
TPA has been successfully implemented by several leading funds, demonstrating its ability to deliver better returns. Thinking Ahead’s Global Asset Owner Peer Study showed that TPA adopters have achieved an average performance edge of 1.3% per annum over SAA adopters over a ten-year period.
In more detail, TPA shifts the focus from rigid asset allocations to a unified strategy where decisions are guided by the fund’s overarching goals. It draws on the best ideas from across the entire investment team to benefit the whole portfolio and introduces the flexibility to adapt to emerging priorities—such as sustainability, intergenerational equity, and evolving economic conditions.
This approach enhances governance, fosters collaboration, unlocks new opportunities, and supports more multidimensional “3D investing.”
As the performance benefits become more evident and a growing number of institutions adopt TPA, the model is gaining momentum, bolstered by increasing social proof and shared success stories across the investment community.
Thinking Ahead Institute have assisted several funds on their journey towards TPA. If you’re navigating the transition from SAA to TPA, you may find our TPA spectrum a helpful resource. It outlines the range of models and key considerations to support the shift.
If you would like us to work with your organisation on TPA education and application, please contact us.
We’re expecting a growing number of well-governed asset owners to take the TPA route. Make the transition. Contribute to a quiet revolution in investment practice.
Roger Urwin, Co-founder at the Thinking Ahead Institute
The Total Portfolio Approach is gaining prominence as a transformative investment framework, offering enhanced responsiveness and alignment with institutional objectives. It is revolutionising the future of long-term investing.
Marisa Hall, Head of the Thinking Ahead Institute
Related pages
Take our quiz
- Going Electric: Transitioning from strategic asset allocation (SAA) to total portfolio approach (TPA)
- Total portfolio approach (TPA): Curating the perfect playlist
- TPA’s flexibility keeps OPTrust focused on ‘the mission that matters’
- More funds consider TPA despite challenges
- CalPERS board ponders the risks of TPA
- NZ Super on why a total portfolio approach can both help and hinder PE portfolios
TAI project case studies: TPA
If you’re interested in running a project with us or finding out more about the types of projects we run, take a look.
Project scope: Support the client in reframing its investment policy from SAA to TPA, including the development of a Balanced Scorecard. Also assessed the effectiveness of the CIO role under the new TPA model.
North America
Project org’s AUM: $94bn USD
Project scope: Advise the client on how to improve dynamism, develop a top-of-house function, align governance and enable cost-of capital.
UAE
Project org’s AUM: Over $100bn USD
Project scope: Support the client in benchmarking global TPA standards, diagnosing current TPA practices and developing recommendations to extend the current TPA framework beyond private markets to include public markets.
APAC
Project org’s AUM: $903bn USD
Project scope: Support the client in a multi-stage transition to embed sustainability and TPA principles, using innovative risk models and strategic alignment
with SDGs.
EMEA
Project org’s AUM: $270bn USD
Resources
TPA studies and papers
Total Portfolio Approach Study
This study of leading asset owners confirms that both in theory and in practice, TPA offers theoretical advantages over the more traditional Strategic Asset Allocation (SAA) approach.
Global Asset Owner Peer Study on best practices
The Global Asset Owner Peer Study on best practices is an examination of 26 prominent asset owners from around the world, conducted in partnership with Future Fund. In which TPA is discussed as best practice.
The TPA Story paper
Why is now the time to adopt the total portfolio approach? Find out in this short paper. View the PDF.
The TPA Journey paper
How do you actually implement the total portfolio approach in practice? Take a look at our practical guide on how to do exactly that. View the PDF.
Paper: It’s about time
In this paper, we urge for a switch of thinking to better connect the total portfolio with the fund goals.
Vision to Execution: How Investors Are Operationalizing the Total Portfolio Approach
A new report produced in partnership with CAIA Association
TPA toolkit
Is your organisation more SAA or TPA?
At Thinking Ahead, we’ve built a 10-minute quiz to give you that clarity, based on two decades of research and working with organisations navigating this transition. Take the quiz now and get your results instantly.
TPA discussion deck
This Thinking Ahead Institute presentation outlines the Total Portfolio Approach (TPA), a dynamic, goal-driven investment strategy that outperforms traditional SAA, with insights on transition, performance, and real-world success.
Training: Total portfolio approach (TPA)
Total portfolio approaches have been evolved by leading organisations around the world as a more ‘joined up’ investment philosophy resulting in a more streamlined approach to portfolio construction. Watch our training videos on TPA.
The TPA StoryArc
This deck sets out why TPA is emerging as the new operating system for investing – moving asset owners from siloed, benchmark‑driven thinking to whole‑fund, goal‑aligned, and more resilient decision‑making in a world of rising complexity and systemic risk.
Conversations with our global network on TPA
Listen: Building smarter portfolios: a look inside TPA
In this episode of our Investing for Tomorrow podcast, we’re joined by Sue Brake, former CIO of the Future Fund and Board member at NZ Super Fund and Stephen Gilmore, Chief Investment Officer at CalPERS.
Watch: Can TPA be an efficient way of managing a portfolio?
Roger Urwin and Johanna Kyrklund, Group CIO at Schroders, discuss integrating sustainability under TPA, adoption amongst large asset owners, considerations of combining public and private assets under TPA and much more.
Watch: From Strategic Asset Allocation to a Total Portfolio Mindset and What a Total Portfolio Approach looks like in practice
Roger Urwin joined Mona Naqvi, Managing Director of Research, Advocacy, and Standards at CFA Institute for a pair of deep‑dive discussions on the future of investment institutions and the mindsets shaping long‑term progress, specifically focusing on the Total Portfolio Approach.
Listen: Risk, Return and Responsibility: The Asset Owner’s Moonshot Challenge
Former UK pensions minister Guy Opperman and Sustainable Investor Editorial Director Chris Hall talk to Marisa Hall about the role of asset owners in the evolving landscape of global capital. This conversation delves into why traditional investment “buckets” are being broken down in favour of a more dynamic, holistic approach.
More resources
It’s a drag: why TPA is superior to SAA
A total portfolio approach (TPA) to portfolio construction has been described as a “more joined up” process.
Thinking Ahead in the news…
P&I: Total portfolio approach — why investors must adapt allocation to an increasingly complex world (subscription only)
SAA’s appeal lay in its simplicity: set a benchmark, divide roles and manage portfolios in separate sleeves or silos. Read Roger Urwin’s article.
Top1000Funds: Study gives evidence of value-add from TPA over SAA
The funds that take a total portfolio approach added 1.8 per cent per annum over 10 years above those that use strategic asset allocation in a recent Thinking Ahead Institute study of 26 asset owners, including the Future Fund. Read the article.
