Joshay Harkoo
Director, Insurance Client Solutions
Mercer
Joshay Harkoo is speaking at our Longview Networks Insurance Investment Roundtable 2026
What is your company’s AUM?
- £700 billion
What are your key responsibilities?
- Workplace Default – FutureWise TDFs, Workplace Retirement Proposition, LTAF / Private Assets
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The first rule of manager selection...
is casting as wide-a-net as you possibly can for your chosen strategy. A good manager selection process is only as good as the data that goes into it.
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The biggest mistake allocators make is…
is focusing on the top-down, or bottom-up, when a both dynamics are equally important and the best outcomes come when they the research is working symbiotically.
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My feelings about 2 and 20…
is that access to quality opportunities is a cornerstone of net outcomes, so it is worth paying when you are getting access. However the perception of truly quality managers is significantly driven by brand while private markets remain opaque. But with companies staying private for longer and with more investors getting access to private markets, the opacity will not last. AI and data transparency are accelerating and the number of managers able to charge 2 and 20 will shrink drastically.
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Why I don’t like venture capital in an institutional portfolio…
when it cannot be diversified across vintage, sector or if fees excessively impact the expected outcome. Access to exceptional founders is a critical driver here, relationships are a cornerstone. In some portfolios it can be hard to deploy this capital at scale, so the deployment needs to be managed very carefully and slowly.
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The biggest lesson I’ve learned in investing…
the failures teach you far more than the successes. So cherish, rather than forget, the failures and always iterate your approach.