Intellectual curiosity is a guiding principle for Katherine Molnar, CIO at Fairfax County Police Officers Retirement System (PORS). Katherine began investing as a teenager with the money she earned from summer jobs. She regularly questioned the critical elements of investing and often explored deep technical details in search of an answer. Eagerness for knowledge is a through line in Katherine’s career, motivating her to find innovative methods to strengthen portfolios.

Prior to working at Fairfax County PORS, Katherine spent a decade at AIG Investments (later Pinebridge Investments) where she became deeply acquainted with hedge funds and how they respond to various environments. This experience made for a seamless transition into her role at Fairfax County PORS, where the team was developing all-weather portfolios. Largely dependent on risk parity, this all-weather approach seeks to balance risks between numerous factors and maintain adequate performance regardless of the current state of economic growth and inflation.

“So whether that is expansion, contraction, trough or peak, we try to have a portfolio where something is always working.”

In this episode we discuss:

• Risk parity and building all-weather portfolios
• Intellectual curiosity
• The power of liquidity

After graduating from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration/Finance, Katherine spent two years in Frankfurt, Germany where she worked as an intern for J.P. Morgan. Katherine continued to expand her global perspective in Warsaw, Poland and London, England. In the former, she helped launch the first retail mutual fund in the polish market; in the latter, she worked as Vice President, Senior Research Analyst for AIG. She then transitioned to her current position of Chief Investment Officer at Fairfax County Police Officers Retirement System. 

 

Resources:

• Top Traders Unplugged | 7 Allocator Series: Learnings from Fairfax County ft. Katherine Molnar and Andrew Spellar

 

Listen to Other Successful Investors:

• Charmel Maynard (University of Miami) | Paying It Forward
• Aoiffin Devitt (Moneta Group) | Finding Clarity
• Ari Bergmann (Penso Advisors) | The Edge in Hedges

 

Chapter Summaries:

[00:03:00]

An Early Start to Investing

[00:04:00]

Studying at UNC

[00:09:02]

Hedge Funds at AIG

[00:14:11]

Liquidity and Financial Crises

[00:27:28]

Risk Parity and All-Weather Portfolios

[00:40:38]

Relationships with Managers

[00:48:30]

Transitioning to Fairfax County PORS

[00:58:39]

Intellectual Curiosity

 

Disclaimer: This podcast is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. All content in this podcast reflects the opinions and views of the speakers. This podcast is for informational purposes only, without representation as to accuracy or completeness. The guest(s) on this episode did not have a client relationship with SEI Novus at the time of recording.