The $6 billion Arizona Public Safety Personnel Retirement System is slated to seek managers for a combined $200 million international developed markets and sovereign debt allocation.
Connecticut State Treasurer Denise Nappier, principal fiduciary for the $21.9 billion Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds, will consider managers for small- to mid-cap core and small- to mid-cap value mandates later this year, according to a spokeswoman.
The $10 billion Kentucky Retirement System's investment committee has recommended reducing total equity to 44% from 57% to fund investments in hedge funds, real assets and bonds.
The $5.6 billion Wyoming Retirement System is looking for global tactical, risk parity and global macro hedge fund managers to oversee a $560 million global tactical allocation (GTAA) mandate, said CIO Trent May.
The $68 billion Ohio Public Employees Retirement System has launched a search for active extension managers to invest in 130-30 style funds composed of large-cap U.S. equities.
Consultants are saying plan sponsors should look to put their money into illiquid strategies and emerging markets in the next fiscal year.
After a dip in 2009, timber is once again drawing the interest of institutional investors due to its generally steady returns and counter-cyclical qualities.
Consultants are warning against potential overcrowding in the hedge fund market as pension funds plow into the space looking to boost their investment returns in the face of funding shortfalls.
The $68 billion Ohio Public Employees Retirement System is in the market for four to seven active long-only U.S. small-cap equity managers.
The $1.7 billion Milwaukee County Employees' Retirement System has decided to hire American Realty Advisors, UBS and Morgan Stanley to manage $120 million in real estate investments, confirmed ERS manager Gerald Schroeder.
Public plan sponsors are stepping up their game when it comes to hiring emerging managers.
The $8.5 billion Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System plans to allocate $425 million to core and core-plus real estate through reductions in its $5.9 billion equity portfolio.
After many months of winding its way through the halls of Capitol Hill, The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) was last Wednesday finally signed into law by President Obama. The bill touches almost every corner of finance, and many believe it is the harbinger of a sea-change for the financial services industry, depending on how pursuant regulations are written.
AXA Rosenberg has lost in excess of $20 billion in client assets since the year began, more than $600 million of which walked out the door after the firm admitted a coding error in its investment algorithm in April (MML Daily, 4/26).
Neuberger Berman has made several hires this year and plans to continue to recruit and expand opportunistically to maintain its global reach.
Consultants at Mercer see an investment opportunity in middle market mezzanine debt and are evaluating managers that handle the class.
Asset management firms are putting a shine on hedge fund replication strategies to attract pension funds' and other institutional investors' interest.
Small and medium Chinese companies have a hard time getting listed on Chinese stock exchanges and increasingly want to be listed in the U.S.
Chase Investment Counsel has lost almost half its assets under management after management departures and a run of bad performance.
The board of the $13.5 billion San Francisco Employees Retirement System has terminated AXA Rosenberg from a $325 million international small-cap account, making it the latest client to cut AXA Rosenberg loose.
The $207.4 billion California Public Employees Retirement System’s Investment Committee will recommend 32 real estate consultants for the fund’s “spring fed” pool at its May 17 meeting.
The $1.8 billion San Antonio Fire and Police Pension Fund is slated to discuss a $90 million allocation to real assets such as commodities, infrastructure, oil and gas at its May 25 meeting.
The $4.1 billion Milwaukee City Employees Retirement System may be in the market for a fixed-income manager soon to handle a $200 million mandate.
The $11 billion New Mexico Public Employees Retirement Association has terminated Rothschild Investment Corporation for poor performance and a recent change in investment strategy and will seek a smid-cap growth manager next month to handle a $200 million mandate.
The $94 billion Teacher Retirement System of Texas has hired Neuberger Berman to run a $1.2 billion residential mortgage-backed bonds allocation.
Institutional investors are reviewing their consultants at a faster clip so far this year than during the same period in at least the last four years.
The investment committee of the $1.8 billion City of Fresno Retirement Systems plans to discuss launching a search for an active large-cap core manager at a meeting on April 30.
The $118 billion Florida State Board of Administration is slated to review its policy on internal and external managers at its June 7 meeting.
The $145 million Retirement Benefit Plan for the Employees of the City of St. John’s, Canada, has issued an RFP to replace its balanced fund managers with individual mandates.
The $2 billion Houston Municipal Employees Pension System is seeking eight to 10 hedge fund managers for a $200 million mandate.
The $5.1 San Bernardino County Employees Retirement Association has issued a request for proposals for six long/short equity hedge fund managers to manage approximately $150 million.
The underfunded status of employee pension funds is forcing them to make hard choices regarding strategies needed to close the gap.
Quantitative investment shops are seeing signs of renewed investor interest now that the worst of the financial crisis is over, some investment consultants claim.
Even as the U.S. equities markets bask in the afterglow of one of their greatest rallies ever, corporate pension plans are moving to sell equities and buy bonds with growing zeal this year in an attempt to reduce volatility and the disparity between assets and liabilities.
More public funds are plowing money into hedge funds in an effort to make up for funding shortfalls and protect their portfolios from further dips in the market.
The $21 billion Employees Retirement System of Texas has issued a request-for- qualifications for a private equity real estate fund-of-funds emerging manager for a $50 million mandate.
The $36.5 billion University of California Retirement System will slash its domestic equity portfolio by $3 billion to fund allocations to real assets, such as natural resources, infrastructure, agriculture, farmland, commodities and real estate.
The $24 billion Arizona State Retirement System is in discussions with TCW and will most likely liquidate $100 million of its investment in TCW’s Credit Opportunity Fund.
Michelle Reuter, a researcher on global real estate securities investment managers with Mercer's Research Real Estate Boutique in Chicago, is making the argument that institutional investors should invest in global real estate securities, and advising them to watch for attractive investment opportunities she believes are en route.
The $5.5 billion Michigan Municipal Employees Retirement System is considering plowing as much as $275 million of the fund's assets into emerging market debt.
The $7 billion American Airlines Employees Pension Fund plans to increase its emerging markets equity portfolio to as much as 10% of total assets from 5% currently over a five-year period.
The $129 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund has launched an initial $200 million emerging manager program for hedge funds and plans to develop an emerging manager program for real estate in the near future.
The $96 billion New York City Retirement Systems has issued an RFP for passive domestic equity index managers, with mandates from $150 million to $12 billion in the offing.
The $7 billion San Diego County Employees Retirement Association is expected to approve a new asset allocation on March 18, putting mandates worth $2.7 billion up for grabs.
The $1.63 billion Santa Barbara County Employees Retirement System will discuss launching a search for a manager for a $139.9 million large-cap growth mandate at its March 24 meeting.
The $129.4 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund has terminated domestic and international equity managers, relieving them of $864 million in total.
The Indiana Public Employees Retirement Fund won the Large Public Plan of the Year award at MML’s 9th Annual Public Pension Fund Awards for Excellence ceremony and dinner at the Hyatt Regency Resort & Spa in Huntington Beach, Calif., Sunday.
Due diligence requests from institutional investors looking at asset management firms are focusing more closely on compliance issues.
Several plans are giving up on TCW's Special Mortgage Credit Funds I and II after the firm refused to let them transfer their holdings to another manager, presumably Jeffrey Gundlach at DoubleLine Capital LP.
The $1.6 billion San Jose Federated City Employees Retirement System has approved a 10% allocation to real assets, a 5% allocation to hedge funds and another 5% allocation to opportunistic strategies.
The board of the $13.2 billion San Francisco Employees Retirement System is looking for a fixed-income index manager for a $50-500 million mandate.
The $4.6 billion Alameda County Employees Retirement Association has carved out 10% of the pension's 23% international equity portfolio to be dedicated to small-cap equities.
The $42.7 billion Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board voted to allocate $150 million to international timber investments in the coming year at its Feb. 2 board meeting.
Ennis, Knupp & Associates has booted Capital Guardian Trust Co. from its list of approved managers for lagging performance, the Ventura County Employees Retirement Association is looking to replace the manager for a $100 million international equity mandate and Alameda County Employees Retirement Association plans to reduce the fund's international equity mandate to $423 million from $476 million.
The Santa Barbara County Employees Retirement System, the Kern County Employees Retirement System and the Sonoma County Employees Retirement Association are looking to invest in a variety of fixed-income strategies this year.
The $4.3 billion San Diego City Employees Retirement System will vote on whether to seek active managers for a $260 million global fixed income mandate at its Jan. 21 meeting.
Ennis, Knupp & Associates is advising all clients with fixed-income exposure to TCW to terminate the manager.
Robert Maynard, cio of the Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho, has won MML's Lifetime Achievement Award for his thorough approach to investment strategy, achieving strong performance for the fund and helping guide peers and managers throughout the industry.
The Oregon Investment Council, which manages investments for the $55 billion Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund, will soon vote on committing $300 million to small- and mid-sized private equity managers in emerging markets this quarter.