The 2025 CIO Sentiment Survey marks the 10^th edition of the initiative, which has become a key annual indicator of asset allocation and operational designs trends in asset owner organisations. Began in 2013, the survey is a collaboration between Top1000funds.com and Deloitte’s Casey Quirk, with the aim of conducting a regular pulse check on what’s keeping investors of trillion of dollars of fiduciary capital up at night.

The inagural survey came at a time when memories of the 2008 financial crisis still loom like a shadow. Almost half of the CIOs polled at the time, managing a combined $5 trillion, said that they had revised the investment performance targets since the GFC, with a review of objectives and expectations resulting in lower target returns.

But today, with markets running harder than ever before, almost all of them are confident in hitting their return target.

Some risk concerns are carried through time. Data from five years ago in 2019 (in absence of an edition in 2020) showed that equity risk was also top of mind for respondents. It came after 2018 recorded one of the worst years in equities since the the financial crisis amid sluggish global economy.

The increasing US-China trade tension was also adding uncertainties to portfolios during the first Trump administration. As he returns to the White House 2025 and launched more protectionist trade policies, investors are already feeling the déjà vu.

Asset allocation wise, CIOs five years ago and now are both exhibiting a higher level of conservatism in their portfolios. The two time points are similar in that respondents have little willingness to take on more equity risks, and turned to alternatives in search for diversification.But as this year’s results indicate, there are early signs of cautiousness around the maturing alternatives market and if there is too much capital chasing limited opportunities.

In the coming years, as asset owner organisations become more multi-faceted and the investment landscape becomes more complex, there will be both interal and external implications. Internally, it is ever more crucial for funds to house the right talents and address emerging organisational risks. Externally, asset managers ought to highlight specialisation skills and the value-add they bring in addition to the increasingly mature in-house investment team, all while being fee-efficient.

As the world grapples with generation-defining shifts including demographics movement, deglobalisation, energy transition and digital transformation, the only way forward for investors is to say resilient and vigilant.