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.
Six multi-billion dollar pension funds are reviewing TCW after the firm last month ousted its CIO Jeffrey Gundlach, who oversaw TCW's bond and mortgage-related strategies.
The board of the $15 billion Texas County and District Retirement System has carved out a new commodities allocation at 2%.
The $6.1 billion Arizona Public Safety Personnel Retirement System is considering moving roughly $1.5 billion of its global equities portfolio into portable alpha, long/short and global tactical asset allocation strategies next year.
John Liu, the New York City comptroller-elect, plans to appoint new investment staff for the New York City Retirement Systems after he takes office Jan. 1
Boeing, the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System and the South Carolina Retirement System are planning to allocate close to $2 billion to investing directly in hedge funds next year.
Pension funds are beginning to return to securities lending after nearly a year of staying away, but are limiting their involvement to risk-averse programs.
Consultant Wurts & Associates is advising its clients to terminate INTECH due to poor returns, organizational changes and its quantitative approach.
The $8.3 billion Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System will conduct an asset/liability study in June with an eye toward increasing its alternatives exposure.
The Investment Advisory Council for the $22 billion Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds will search for managers to oversee a combined $1.2 billion in absolute return and real asset mandates.
The $850 million Tulare County (Calif.) Employees Retirement Association will search for an international small-cap equity manager and an emerging markets manager to oversee mandates valued at a combined $110 million.
The $66 billion North Carolina Retirement System has launched a search for in-state private equity managers and the $11 billion Kansas Public Employees Retirement System is considering upping its exposure to the asset class.
Callan Associates has named Inga Sweet and Kelly Cliff as co-leads of its Global Manager Research Group, splitting the position that was previously held by Greg DeForrest. DeForrest has moved to Fund Sponsor Consulting at Callan and is now a senior v.p. and investment consultant.
The $16.4 billion Mississippi Public Employees Retirement System has approved a $300 million search for an emerging market debt manager and a search for a global bond manager for an undisclosed amount.
The $130.6 billion California State Teachers Retirement System is considering the addition of a global macro strategy.
The investment staff of the Federal Express Corporation's $10 billion pension fund plans to seek managers for a long-duration bond mandate worth at least $500 million.
The $116.5 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund is considering investing up to 4% in real assets and up to 3% in an opportunistic portfolio based on a presentation from its consultant, Strategic Investment Solutions.
New Mexico and North Carolina have hired Ennis, Knupp & Associates to review governance of pension and endowment funds in the wake of nationwide pay-to-play allegations.
Capital Guardian Group has closed its $1 billion international small-cap fund, prompting some pension funds to sever ties with the firm.
The investment committee of the $20.7 billion Arizona State Retirement System has approved initial allocations to high-yield bonds at 2%, and commodities and emerging market equities at 3% each.
The $41.5 billion Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board voted at its Oct. 13 board meeting to move $982 million into its global equities portfolio, made up of domestic, international and emerging markets.
The United Auto Workers Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association has retained Ridgeway Partners to recruit senior executives in equities, fixed income and risk management as it readies to invest assets and choose managers on Jan. 1.
The $19.7 billion Iowa Public Employees Retirement System is seeking two large-cap enhanced index equity managers to oversee up to $600 million.
The $1.6 billion Oakland County Employees Retirement Commission will search for long/short equity managers to oversee 5% of the portfolio next year and will slash its 65% traditional equity portfolio to 50% to fund the move.
The $15.9 billion Texas Municipal Retirement System plans to increase its equities allocation to 20% from 16% by the end of the year and will devote up to 3% of the fund's assets to real estate and 2% to real return by the end of 2010 to diversify.
The $19.4 billion Iowa Public Employees Retirement System voted to allocate 3% of the fund's assets to Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities during a two-day investment meeting last week.
Plan sponsors have been bumping up their fixed-income allocations during the first half of 2009, according to Mercer.
This time last year, Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch was acquired by Bank of America and AIG was taken over by the U.S. government, marking one of the biggest market shocks in history.
The investment committee of the $20.7 billion Arizona State Retirement System is considering first-time investments in commodities and Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, as well as carving out a separate emerging markets allocation.
The board of the $6.8 billion Maine Public Employees Retirement System has given its investment team free rein to make changes among active equity managers at a meeting last week.
The $9 billion Chicago Public School Teachers Pension & Retirement Fund has decided to search for emerging fixed-income and fund of hedge fund managers.
The board of the $1.7 billion Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County Employee Benefit System has decided to carve out a first-time, 10% allocation to hedge funds.
The Rhode Island State Investment Commission will vote at a meeting Sept. 23 whether to allocate 10% of the $6.1 billion Rhode Island Employees Retirement System's assets to a real return portfolio.
Bloomberg has launched the Environmental Social Governance (ESG) data service for its stock data service subscribers, which money managers and analysts believe to be the first of its kind, according tp MML's sister publication, Wall Street Letter.
The $63 billion New Jersey Division of Investment hosted a meeting Aug. 19 in Trenton for representatives from the division, the $110 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund, the $27 billion Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System and the Connecticut Retirement Plans & Trust Funds to talk about investing in the Public-Private Partnership Program.
Some pension funds are trying to get back into securities lending despite taking a hit last year.
The $39.4 billion Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board will evaluate its absolute return portfolio at its October meeting with an eye toward terminating some managers or cutting their mandates.
The $4.4 billion San Bernardino County Employees Retirement Association is planning to terminate Goldman Sachs Asset Management from a $60 million global (ex-U.S.) aggregate bond portfolio.
The $2.8 billion Chicago Policemen's Annuity & Benefit Fund has revamped its asset allocation to include a 5% target to global macro strategies and also plans to start evaluating Public-Private Investment Portfolio strategies.
The $1.6 billion Fresno City Employees Retirement System may cut some of its managers at its August board meeting due to poor performance.
Pension funds are cutting active equity managers due to poor returns and turning to passive management instead.
Putnam Investments plans to launch hedge fund strategies for the first time by the end of the year.
The $18 billion Iowa Public Employees Retirement System is looking for managers for its global macro and enhanced index equity portfolios.