Top performing institutional investors have a median allocation of over 40 percent in private investments, says investment firm Cambridge Associates.

The firm’s report, entitled Private Investing for Private Investors, found that institutions with a 20 year average allocation of over 15 percent to private investments produced average annual returns of 8.1 percent.

This was 160 basis points higher than peers with less than five percent allocation in private investments.

Cambridge Associates highlighted that top decile performers who have been increasing their allocations in private investments over the last t...