Cambridge, Mass.-based consultant NEPC plans to move into the space previously occupied by Ennis, Knupp & Associates, which is slated to become Hewitt Ennis Knupp, by the end of the year.
The $9.9 billion Los Angeles City Employees Retirement System is slated to hear finalist presentations from four consultants at its Aug. 31 meeting.
The $11.5 billion Teachers' Retirement System of Louisiana is searching for a general investment consultant. The deadline for proposals is Sept. 17.
Rob Kurak, the retirement lead for Taft-Hartley pension plans for Mercer, sees a range of challenges for multi-employer plans as the economy suffers and, unfortunately, he doesn't see any easy fix.
Ryder System, with $946 million in defined benefit assets, has contributed $2.5 million to its Canadian pension plan so far this year, and plans to add $2.5 million more by year’s end.
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.
The $212 million Northampton (Pa.) County Employees Retirement Fund interviewed two potential investment consultant candidates on July 16 and will choose one in September.
The $29 billion Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System has tapped Cambridge Associates as its private equity consultant.
San Francisco-based Strategic Investment Solutions has opened a satellite office in Manhattan.
The $212 million Northampton (Pa.) County Employees Retirement Fund will interview two potential investment consultant candidates on July 16, after issuing a request for proposals last year and receiving proposals in late 2009.
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).
A just-published report from eVestment Alliance and Casey, Quirk & Associates suggests there was a pickup in equity search activity in the second quarter that is likely to translate into a positive flow of funds into the asset class by year end.
Although many public pension plans have already made the jump into alternatives, Kevin Lenaghan, senior associate at alternatives consulting firm Cliffwater Associates, based in Marina del Rey, Calif., is still pushing institutional investors toward the area.
The $4.2 billion District of Columbia Retirement Board has tapped Meketa Investment Group to replace Towers Watson, formerly Watson Wyatt, as its general consultant.
On June 24 the $3.1 billion Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago sacked Cleveland’s Courtland Partners and appointed NEPC as the consultant for its $150 million real estate portfolio. At the same meeting the fund also tapped the Boston-based firm to replace Chicago’s Ennis, Knupp & Associates as its general consultant.
Many multiemployer pension plan trustees are looking to improve their plans' funded status via increased allocations to alternative investments, according to a recent report by SEI's Pension Management Research Panel.
The $1.6 billion Santa Barbara County (Calif.) Employees Retirement System is searching for managers to run $32 million in covered calls as well as a $30 million fund-of-hedge-funds mandate.
Consultants at Mercer see an investment opportunity in middle market mezzanine debt and are evaluating managers that handle the class.
Larry Gray believes investors should now be winding down entry into high-yield investing and is looking at transitioning some of those clients into opportunistic real estate.
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.
Investment consulting firm Wurts & Associates is recommending that clients review their real estate portfolios, specifically core open-ended funds investments, and is suggesting that those who are underweight should now consider climbing back to target levels.
Martin Levenson, who was head of Segal Advisors in 1969 when the investment consulting business was founded, passed away on May 26.
The $129 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund has hired R.V. Kuhns & Associates, replacing incumbent consultant Strategic Investment Solutions.
The $7.6 billion West Virginia Investment Management Board has hired Strategic Investment Solutions as its investment consultant, replacing Summit Strategies Group.
The $1.7 billion Santa Barbara County Employees Retirement System will issue a request for proposals for a new investment consultant later this year.
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney has removed all TCW fixed-income strategies from its watch list, a spokeswoman for MSSB confirmed.
The board of the $16 billion Texas Municipal Retirement System has tapped ORG Portfolio Management as its real estate consultant, pending contract negotiations.
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.
For institutional investors embarking on a more urgent hunt for low or uncorrelated assets in the wake of the financial crisis, Insurance-Linked Strategies (ILS) may be the ticket.
The $46.7 billion Pennsylvania Public Schools Employees Retirement System will hire Aksia LLC as its hedge fund consultant for a contract of up to 5 years.
The New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust is seeking an investment consultant for its $50 million portfolio.
The $13.4 billion New Mexico State Investment Council will release a request for proposals for a private equity advisor within the next few weeks.
The $39.8 million Genesee County (Mich.) Purchasing Department is looking for an investment consultant.
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 $34 billion Teachers Retirement System of New York City has issued a request for proposals for a private equity consultant.
The $640 million Retirement System of Allegheny County in Pennsylvania has hired Asset Strategy Consultants as its alternatives consultant
The $9.4 billion Los Angeles City Employees Retirement System plans to discuss cancelling its current RFP for a general pension fund consultant and issuing a revised RFP at a meeting this week.
The Washington State Pension Funding Council and the retirement board of the Law Enforcement Officers and Firefighters Plan 2 (LEOFF) have issued requests for proposals for an actuarial consultant and a risk management consultant.
The finance department of the City of Phoenix, Ariz. is seeking an investment consultant to help advise the city on its internally managed portfolio, with assets worth $2.7 billion.
The $4.3 billion San Diego City Employees Retirement System has tapped Ennis, Knupp & Associates as its new general consultant pending final contract negotiations.
The $890 million Tulare County (Calif.) Employees Retirement Association is slated to issue a request for proposal for investment consulting services at its April 19 meeting.
Mark Brubaker, managing director at Wilshire Associates, has seen investment strategies come and go in his career but, as he tells it, the only successful way to create a truly efficient portfolio is through diversification.
The $132.6 billion California State Teachers Retirement System has issued an RFP for a global macro hedge fund consultant.
The Alabama State Port Authority and the International Longshoremens Association Local 1984 are looking for a consultant for their $9.4 million Hourly-Paid Alabama State Docks Department Workers Retirement Plan.
The finance committee of the Amity Board of Education in Connecticut has issued a request for proposals for an investment consultant to oversee assets of the Amity Regional School District's Non-Certified Pension Plan, Sick & Severance Plan and OPEB Trust.
The $200 million City of Glendale (Ariz.) has issued an RFP for investment advisory services to help make appropriate investments, improve investment returns, and develop reporting requirements.
The $300 million Dallas-Fort Worth Airport Employees Pension Plan has hired the Bogdahn Group as its general consultant.
The $13.4 billion New Mexico State Investment Council plans to issue an RFP for an investment consultant in the next month because the contract of its incumbent, NEPC, will expire in June.
The $1.5 billion New Mexico Finance Authority has issued an RFP for investment advising services.
Every issue, MML poses reader questions to consultants. Is there something you’re dying to ask? Let us know by contacting Mark Fortune, managing editor, at (212) 224-3129 or mfortune@iinews.com.
The $10 million City of Cherry Hills Village (Colo.) has issued an RFP for an investment advisory firm to help develop and manage a cash management and investment program.
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.
Kloepfer is recommending his clients invest in global equities and hold off from investing in real estate and private equity.
The $72 billion Washington State Investment Board has postponed issuing an RFQQ, or request for qualifications and quotes, for a real estate investment consultant.
The $872 million City of Wichita (Kan.) Pension Management Office, the governing body responsible for the investments of the Wichita Employees Retirement Board and the Police & Fire Retirement Board, has voted to remove Callan Associates from its watch list. The fund has now charged Callan with conducting an asset/liability study, which is expected to be completed in several months.
The $2.95 billion Vermont Pension Investment Committee (VPIC) has authorized its investment consultant, NEPC, to begin a search for fund of hedge funds managers for a currently-unspecified allocation.
Funds are starting to look overseas for new investment opportunities, and Michael Sebastian, principal with Ennis, Knupp & Associates, is leading the charge.
Institutional long-only equity strategies have shorter investment horizons than what investors are actually told, according to a joint study done by Mercer and Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute.
Funds may find that the best way to control funded status volatility is to look outside of the board, according to the results of a quick poll conducted by SEI.