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Callan

Independent investment consulting backed by 50 years of institutional research.

Services-only
$1+ trillion (total assets overseen by clients)Assets on platform / AUM
400+ institutional plans, funds, and asset poolsClients
01 — Overview

What Callan does

Callan is an independent, employee-owned investment consulting firm that has advised institutional investors for more than 50 years. Its primary client base consists of pension plans, endowments, foundations, healthcare systems, and insurance assets. Callan Family Office is positioned as a separate, independent firm focused on serving select families and their nonprofit organizations, making the family office offering a distinct but related practice rather than a core business line of the parent firm.

For institutional-grade investment oversight, Callan brings depth that most single-family office teams cannot replicate internally. The firm's advisory model covers:

  • Asset allocation and asset/liability modeling developed since the 1970s
  • Manager evaluation and selection across public and private markets, including direct partnership evaluations, co-investment screening, and fund-of-funds searches
  • Alternatives consulting with a dedicated review committee and published research on private equity fees and terms
  • Discretionary OCIO services for clients who prefer to delegate implementation
  • ESG integration and environmental, social, and governance advisory

The Callan Institute, established more than 40 years ago, produces proprietary research including capital markets assumptions, benchmarking studies, and private equity fee analyses covering hundreds of partnerships. This research infrastructure distinguishes Callan from generalist advisors and gives clients access to peer-group data that would otherwise require significant internal resources to compile. The firm reports that its clients collectively oversee more than $1 trillion in assets across more than 400 institutional plans. Callan's family office practice is described as serving "select families," which implies a limited client roster rather than a broad wealth management platform. Pricing is not disclosed publicly, and the depth of services available to family office clients versus institutional pension clients is not fully detailed on the site.

Asset allocation gets all the glory as the single most important decision an investor can make, but we believe implementation requires equal care.

On Callan, from a family-office user
02 — Product & capabilities

What it covers

Core tasks
  • Asset allocation and portfolio construction for institutional-scale portfolios
  • Investment manager evaluation and selection across public and private markets
  • Alternatives consulting including private equity, co-investments, and fund-of-funds
  • Performance and risk monitoring
  • Discretionary OCIO portfolio management
  • ESG integration advisory
Notable features
  • Proprietary asset allocation and liability modeling capabilities
  • Callan DNA proprietary manager database for private equity partnership evaluation
  • Annual private equity fees and terms study benchmarking hundreds of partnerships
  • Capital markets assumptions research
  • Alternatives Review Committee for vetting alternative investments
  • Callan Institute education and research library
  • Periodic Table of Investment Returns
  • OCIO discretionary management services
  • Manager search and RFP process support
  • Callan On-Demand Education (CODE) platform
Assets supported
Private EquityVenture CapitalFund-of-FundsSecondariesPublic EquitiesFixed IncomeAlternativesReal EstatePrivate CreditInsurance Assets
Platform & technology
BenchmarkingCustom Reporting
03 — Company

The firm behind it

Ownership
Employee-owned
Software type
Services-only
Headquarters / markets
United States
Offices
San Francisco
Key people
JJay KloepferHead of Capital Markets Research
DDavid WongSenior Vice President, Alternatives Consulting
AAshley KahnAlternatives Consulting (author of PE fees research)
04 — Clients & fit

Who it’s for

Built for Single Family Office (SFO), Multi Family Office (MFO), Investment Teams, CIO / Investment Office.

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