Investment staff and four selected consultants expect CalPERS’ returns will be less than the fund’s current 7.75 per cent – a finding on the agenda of a special investment workshop next week, alongside static versus dynamic asset allocation and the use of leveraged bonds.
The decision by California Attorney General, Edmund Brown, to charge former CalPERS board member and placement agent, Alfred Villalobos, his company ARVCO Capital, and former CalPERS chief executive, Federico Buenrostro, with fraud could have serious consequences for the future investment direction of the fund.
The speed with which CalPERS can fulfil its desire to become a risk intelligent organisation has been given a reality check with discussions between the Californian fund and TIAA-CREF revealing it takes two to five years to fully implement an effective enterprise risk-management structure, and importantly a risk intelligent culture in an organisation.
CalPERS’ internal commodities team should enforce a tracking error limit for the portfolio it manages, and prepare to boost headcount and resources as investment opportunities evolve and funds under management grow, the fund’s primary asset consultant, Wilshire Associates, found in a review.
Wilshire Associates has survived another competitive tender, trumping RogersCasey in the interview scoring process to retain the position of CalPERS’ lead general investment consultant, a position it has held since 1983.
CalPERS’ remaining board meetings for the year, in May, July and September, will be open to the public as the fund deliberates a full asset-liability assessment, culminating in a potential change to the benchmark rate of return in December.
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