CAIA’s Total Portfolio Approach (TPA) Hub is your central resource for the evolving conversation around TPA, regularly updated with new ideas, challenges, and applications.
Bookmark this page, check back often, and join the conversation as the future of portfolio construction unfolds.
From a Napkin Sketch to an Industry Blueprint
Behind every webinar, whitepaper, and report is a conversation with CIOs, strategists, asset owner board rooms, and risk managers wrestling with what TPA means in practice. Our role has been to connect those voices, capture their insights, and help move the industry forward—together.
John L. Bowman, CEO, CAIA Association
Back in late 2022, a napkin sketch at a Singapore Starbucks raised a critical question:
What does TPA reveal about portfolio construction?
That moment laid the foundation for a clearer, jargon-free understanding of TPA, demystified and distilled into four core dimensions.
The idea then turned into a report. Followed by dozens of conversations at conferences, in webinars, podcasts, and across CAIA Chapter events. And then a second report.
Along the way, CAIA Association became a leading voice in making the Total Portfolio Approach not just a theory, but an ongoing movement and conversation.
This hub is where all that lives.
It brings together the full scope of CAIA Association’s work on TPA: from foundational reports and expert articles to a microcredential, videos, webinars, real-world applications shared on stage, in panels and at CAIA chapter events.
Whether you’re just beginning to explore TPA or seeking to deepen your perspective, this page offers a curated entry point guided by the insights, questions, and contributions of the investment community itself.
Reports
CAIA ASSOCIATION
From Vision to Execution: How Investors Are Operationalizing the Total Portfolio Approach
Capital allocators are no longer asking what the Total Portfolio Approach (TPA) is, but how to implement…
CAIA ASSOCIATION
Innovation Unleashed: The Rise of Total Portfolio Approach
Total Portfolio Approach (TPA) allows for opportunism – investing with a mindset of what is the best investment right now for the overall…
BANK OF SINGAPORE
Whole Portfolio Approach for Wealth Investors
A Whole Portfolio Approach re-architects portfolios to withstand shifting market regimes by looking beyond conventional asset class labels and risk-return…
Knowledge Video Series
CAIA ASSOCIATION
CAIA Explores Total Portfolio Approach Playlist
Explore our Total Portfolio Approach playlist on YouTube (updated regularly)
PICTON INVESTMENTS
Building Resilient Portfolios with The Total Portfolio Approach
In today’s evolving market conditions, the need for investors to strengthen their portfolios with alternative strategies has never been greater…
Blogs
FEBRUARY 2026
The TPA Roadmap for GPs: From Parts Provider to Chief Problem Solver
By John L. Bowman, CFA, Chief Executive Officer, CAIA Association
JANUARY 2026
The Participant’s Trilemma: Learning from Other DC Plans Around the World
By Aaron Filbeck, CAIA, CFA, CFP®, CIPM, FDP, Managing Director, Content & Community Strategy, CAIA Association
NOVEMBER 2025
Experimentation, Factors, and Commitment: CPP Investment’s Journey Towards TPA
By Geoffrey Rubin, PhD, Senior Managing Director, One Fund Strategist at CPP Investments
OCTOBER 2025
No Sacred Cows: New Zealand Super’s Journey Towards TPA
By Charles Hyde, PhD, Head of Asset Allocation, New Zealand Superannuation Fund
OCTOBER 2025
Rules of the Game: Tactical Asset Allocation vs. Competition for Capital
By Aaron Filbeck, CAIA, CFA, CFP®, CIPM, FDP, Managing Director, Content & Community Strategy, CAIA Association
JULY 2025
A Blueprint for Total Portfolio Allocation with Private Assets
By Dhruv Sharma, PhD, Executive Director, Multi-Asset Research at MSCI
Podcasts
BUILDING BETTER PORTFOLIOS
The Way You Allocate Your Portfolio is About to Be Flipped on it’s Head with John Bowman
What if the way investors have allocated capital for the last 50 years was actually costing them alpha? We sat down with John Bowman…
OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY
The Market’s Biggest Whales are Making Huge Changes: Total Portfolio Revolution with Steve Novakovic of CAIA
Steven Novakovic, Managing Director of Educational Programs at CAIA, discusses the monumental shift…
CAPITAL DECANTED
Total Portfolio Approach, Part 2 – Implications for the Broader Investment Ecosystem
What happens when asset owners stop managing asset classes and start managing the whole fund? How do portfolios change, and how does the…
ALTERNATIVE ALLOCTIONS
The Rise of the Total Portfolio Approach with Guest Aaron Filbeck, CAIA, CFA, CFP®, CIPM, FDP, CAIA Association
In this episode of Alternative Allocations, Tony and Aaron discuss the Total Portfolio Approach (TPA), which shifts…
CAPITAL DECANTED
Total Portfolio Approach: An Unexpected Journey with Ben Samild and Jayne Bok
Since the arrival of Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) in the early 1950’s by the legendary Harry Markowitz, the industry has been sturdily anchored…
Newsletters
OCTOBER 2025
Against the Current – Operationalizing the Total Portfolio Approach
Authored by Claire Sawyer, Associate Director, Educational Programs, CAIA Association
MARCH 2025
The Collaborative Model – Can’t We All Just Get Along?
Authored by Aaron Filbeck, CAIA, CFA, CFP®, CIPM, FDP, Managing Director of Global Content Strategy
Articles
Portfolio Thinking Evolves | Funds Europe | March 2, 2026
Implementing Total Portfolio Approach at an Operational Level
Chief Investment Officer | January 20, 2026
This Group Has a Road Map for TPA. Not Everyone’s Along for the Ride. Institutional Investor | October 10, 2025