CFO Intelligence Magazine – Fall 2025
Dennis Roemer
Consultant
Managing invested funds is a key aspect of the CFO’s responsibility. Most or all CFOs would likely prefer to spend more time on it. For example, the simple mathematical argument is that every 25% improvement in results can yield nearly
$1 million more in annual cash flow on a $300 million pool of invested funds.
And there are qualitative factors — the emotional aspect — for example, of understanding that these funds are under greater scrutiny and not left solely to quarterly advice from external advisors. There might be issues CFOs want to look into more, but can’t quite muster the time and energy to cut away from all of the weekly, monthly, quarterly ongoing priorities that are at the core of an executive’s daily work. And “pop-up” issues arise more often than they like, which further deters them from having the time and energy to engage in these activities.
One rationalization may come to mind for not spending more time on this, such as, “our investment advisory firm is managing our funds, and they are following guidelines established by the organization’s leadership. And they keep a watch on how these funds are faring when the markets twist and turn”