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OHA endowment director requests second staffer, consultants and systems to build internal investment office
Summary
Endowment director Ryan Lee proposed adding an investment analyst and engaging external consultants to transition OHA’s Native Hawaiian Trust Fund toward a trustee‑directed advisory structure. The two‑year native trust budget request is about $1.9 million and, if approved, will be charged to the trust as investment expense.
Ryan Lee, OHA’s endowment director, told trustees he is proposing to expand internal investment capacity with one investment analyst position, targeted advisory contracts, and analytics systems to support asset allocation and execution of private market commitments.
Why it matters: Lee said moving from a manager‑of‑managers structure to a trustee‑directed model with internal capacity can reduce fees and better align investment decisions with OHA’s long‑term goals for the Native Hawaiian Trust Fund. He showed a market‑based benchmarking chart that compares oversight costs (basis points) to asset pool size and said a modest internal office plus external advisors can sit at the low end of reasonable costs for an organization OHA’s size.
Request details: Lee presented a Native Hawaiian Trust Fund expense request of roughly $974,000 for FY26 and $1,020,000 for FY27 (biennium total ≈ $1.99 million); the items are to be paid from the trust as investment expense, not from the agency core operating budget. Major categories are personnel and contracts with the contracts line intended to cover general investment consulting, private markets advisory and a manager‑research database.
Timeline and capacity: Lee said the single added investment analyst will allow the endowment team to accelerate asset‑allocation work, private market commitments and manager sourcing while leveraging external advisors as an extension of staff. He told trustees the added internal capacity makes it reasonable to expect the manager‑of‑managers transition to proceed within the biennium.
Trustee questions: Trustees asked about staffing pace and travel. Lee said the proposed analyst position will be posted once the board authorizes funding and noted travel plans include a small number of sourcing and monitoring trips plus one conference annually.
Ending: Lee asked trustees to consider the request as an investment in long‑term returns and lower aggregate management fees; staff committed to provide contract details and a budget breakdown for trustee review.
