Investment Management Weekly articles from June 2004

Investment Management Weekly archives from June 2004

TIAA-CREF Ups the Corporate-Governance Ante.
June 7, 2004... TIAA-CREF will invest in businesses that meet its new corporate-governance standard and will divest or avoid any company out of step with industry-wide reform in regulation. The $300 billion nationwide teachers pension will now apply an...

San Bernardino Gearing Multi-Search Campaign: Hot Searches In the Summertime.
June 7, 2004... The $3.2 billion San Bernardino County Employees Retirement System will launch searches for managers to oversee a $100 million international equity account and a $180 million small-cap growth account in the coming months. Don Pierce, the...

Two on Watch at New Mexico PERA.
June 7, 2004... The $9.2 billion New Mexico Public Employees Retirement Association has placed American Express Asset Management and MFS Investment Management on watch on their respective $300 million smid-cap growth and $350 million large-cap value accounts....

Congress Approves Pension Funding Fix.
June 7, 2004... A feared spring freeze on pension plans was averted in April when Congress approved a key reform to the rules governing pension plan funding. The action occurred days before many plan sponsors would have been forced to begin making accelerated...

Oakland 911 Watches Ariel Capital.
June 7, 2004... The $615 million Oakland Police & Fire Retirement System placed Ariel Capital Management on watch on its $24 million mid-cap value account during the systems May 26 board meeting. Jim Brown, assistant director at the system, confirmed the...

Texas ERS Appoints New Director.
June 7, 2004... The $20 billion Texas Employees Retirement System has appointed Ann Schwartz Fuelberg as its new executive director. The appointment replaces Sheila Beckett, who resigned in April to take a position with the U.S. Treasury Department in...

CalSTRS Drops Plans For Far East, LatAm.
June 7, 2004... Scaling back an ambitious plan to create an international private equity portfolio that reached from the Far East to Latin America, the $113 billion California State Teachers Retirement System opted instead to stay put in Canada, the United...

AllianceBernstein Retains N.M. Account.
June 7, 2004... The $6.2 billion New Mexico Educational Retirement Board has retained AllianceBernstein Institutional Investment Management as its manager on a $140 million global emerging markets equity account, said Frank Foy, the plans CIO. The firms...

Louisiana Cops Retain Big Easy Manager.
June 7, 2004... The $311 million Louisiana State Police Retirement System has removed Orleans Capital Management from its watch list. The firmwhich oversees a $50 million domestic-fixed income account for the planwas placed on watch late last year after...

ASRS Modifies Manager Presentations.
June 7, 2004... The manager presentation and review process at the Arizona State Retirement System will no longer require onsite visitation from managers under contract with the $18 billion plan. We decided that it is more efficient for managers to...

Massive Contributions, Rebounding Stocks Lift ERISA Plans.
June 7, 2004... Surging investment returns and a flood of new cash lifted the fortunes of the nations 100 largest corporate pension plans last year, pushing the ratio of assets to liabilities in the average plan up to 88.5%, according to analysis by Milliman...

Survey: Consultant Usage Remains Stable in 2004.
June 7, 2004... Consultant usage amonginstitutional plan sponsors remained steady during the year, according to the Thomson Financial/Nelson Informations 2004 Pension Fund Consultant survey. The surveywhich polled approximately 18,000 U.S.-based plan...

West Virginia Taft-Hartley Diversifies Internationally.
June 7, 2004... It is no secret that many plans in the Taft-Hartley universe have not been strong proponents of international investing. With strong patriotic beliefs and a dedication to all that is American, Taft-Hartley plans, for the most part, have...

Stocker Builds Firm Through Compliance.
June 7, 2004... The investment management business has had a track record of attracting an assortment of individuals with varied interests. The resume for Alexandra Stocker is impressive, even in an industry rife with people long in the credential-department....

Odds & Ends.
June 7, 2004... Eighty-seven percent of shareholder base of General Motors Corp. voted down a proposal for an independent chairman. Eighty-one percent of the Ingersoll-Rand Co. shareholders voted in favor of a California Public Employees Retirement System...

Decadence, CCOERA Style.
June 14, 2004... An audit of the Colorado County Officials & Employees' Retirement Association's (CCOERA) expenses found that some of the plan's staff had spent thousands of dollars on leases for luxury cars, trips for spouses and liquor and golf excursions....

LACERS Plans TIPS, Intermediate Bond Searches.
June 14, 2004... The board of the $7.7 billion Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System has approved new allocations to global TIPS and intermediate bonds, and will dedicate approximately 3.5% or $267 million to each allocation. Rod June, investment...

Virginia Retirement System Revamps Portfolio.
June 14, 2004... The Virginia Retirement System is gearing up to implement an "enhanced strategic portfolio" that could mean changes to the $38 billion pension fund's manager line up. Nancy Everett, plan CIO, said that the board will conduct due diligence...

Indiana Teachers Size Up Asset Allocation.
June 14, 2004... The $6.5 billion Indiana State Teachers' Retirement Fund is in the midst of a comprehensive asset allocation study that could spell changes for the plan. "The review may prompt potential manager changes," said Robert Newland, plan CIO. He...

Jacksonville 911 Plots for More Real Estate.
June 14, 2004... The approximately $900 million Jacksonville Fire & Police Pension Fund is gearing up to launch a search for a value-added real estate manager to oversee a $40 million mandate, said John Keene, executive director of the Florida plan. The...

D.C. Plan Eyes Emerging Markets.
June 14, 2004... The $2.5 billion District of Columbia Retirement Board-which includes the Police Officers & Firefighters Retirement Fund and the Teachers' Retirement Fund-will launch a search for an emerging markets fund-of-funds manager in the coming months....

AFPC Eyes Two For Top Slot.
June 14, 2004... The $25 billion Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. has narrowed its search for a new executive director to two candidates. The search, which yielded five finalists, was whittled down during meetings on June 7 and 8. Mike Burns and David Miles now...

Penn State Inches Toward Audit Ruling.
June 14, 2004... The Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System (PSERS) and the Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement System (SERS) may have to share details of its ethics and investment practices if the state's Auditor General's office has its...

SWIB Appoints New Director.
June 14, 2004... The $70 billion State of Wisconsin Investment Board has appointed David Mills as its new executive director. Mills' appointment replaces Patricia Lipton, who retired in January after serving in the position for 14 years. Lipton is a 20-year...

Wilshire Hires Hedge Fund Boss.
June 14, 2004... Wilshire Associates has hired Thomas Kuntz as managing director of its funds management division. Kuntz, who was most recently the director of research at Archstone Partnerships-a privately held fund-of-funds-will oversee hedge...

Michigan System Plots Actuarial Study.
June 14, 2004... Sterling Heights General Employees Retirement System is planning an actuarial assumption study. "My gut reaction is most of our assumption is now sound," said Rick Sanborn, administrator of the $92 million plan. Sanborn indicated a...

L.A. Utility Picks Emerging Markets Mgrs.
June 14, 2004... The roughly $6 billion Los Angeles Water & Power Employees' Retirement Plan has hired T. Rowe Price and The Boston Co. to each oversee between $45-50 million in emerging markets equity. The appointments were made during the plan's June 2 board...

Spitzer Warns of History Repeating Itself.
June 14, 2004... New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer believes that despite record-breaking fines and penalties, the financial world is doomed to repeat its mistakes. "There's absolutely no question the lessons will have to be learned over and over and...

Money Manager is Vindicated in Fund Timing Probe.
June 14, 2004... PIMCO is off the hook for alleged trading infractions, as New Jersey regulators' assault on the fund complex proved to be a rush to judgment, according to IMW's sister publication, Money Management Executive. New Jersey Attorney General...

Barksdale Philosophy Drives Firm.
June 14, 2004... Prior to starting his own investment management firm in 1986, Jim Barksdale already had his firm's philosophy in mind. This philosophy would be the basis of the success of his firm, Equity Investment Corp. "I thought that the...

Odds & Ends.
June 14, 2004... *The $110 million Weymouth Retirement Board will remove the bulk of its assets from the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board (Mass PRIM) on July 1. The board cites poor management of its money during the bear market that...

TIAA-CREF Members Press For Change.
June 21, 2004... The members of TIAA-CREF pressed the $300 billion retirement fund for more changes in governance and investment policies during its annual shareholders meeting in Charlotte, N.C. Members urged the system to drop stocks in tobacco...

MassPRIM Seeks Passive Small-Cap Managers.
June 21, 2004... The $29 billion Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board has launched a search for a manager to oversee a $700 million passive small-cap account. The search could potentially unseat incumbent State Street Global Advisors...

Okla. PERS Readies Small-Cap Value RFP.
June 21, 2004... The $5.8 billion Oklahoma Public Employees' Retirement System is preparing to search for a small-cap value equity manager in the coming weeks, said Kirk Stebbins, CIO. Details of the search were scant, as Stebbins declined to comment on...

Hawaii Gears Up For Core Fixed-Income.
June 21, 2004... The $8.7 billion State of Hawaii Employees' Retirement System is gearing up to launch a search for a core-plus fixed-income manager in the coming months, said Kimo Blaisdell, the plan's CEO. Blaisdell could not specify the size of the...

Kalamazoo Drops Morgan Stanley.
June 21, 2004... The $416 million City of Kalamazoo Retirement System has terminated Morgan Stanley Investment Management from a roughly $20 million real estate account and is presently considering several candidates to replace the firm. Kim Fink, the...

Gloucester Seeks Growth Manager.
June 21, 2004... The $48 million City of Gloucester Contributory Retirement System has launched a search for large-cap growth manager to oversee approximately $6 million. Specific reasons for the search could not be determined, as calls to Linda Geary, the...

Vermont Funds Remain Separate Entities.
June 21, 2004... Investment managers retained by the state of Vermont can rest easy now that a plan to consolidate the state's three major pension boards has been scrapped, said David Minot, director of finance and investments. The idea to merge the $2.8...

Pa. Plan Beefs Up Private Equity.
June 21, 2004... The $24.7 billion Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement System has added $130 million worth of commitments to its private equity portfolio, as part of an effort to boost the portfolio's size by 4% over the next four years. During the...

New Hampshire Defers Small-Cap Search.
June 21, 2004... The New Hampshire Retirement System has postponed its selection of a small-cap manager in order to concentrate on the manager selection process for its alternative investment portfolio. The $4.5 billion system-which initiated the small-cap...

San Mateo Hires Two For Int'l Equity.
June 21, 2004... The $1.4 billion San Mateo Employees' Retirement Association has hired Julius Baer Investment Management and Delaware Investment Advisors to replace Bank of Ireland Asset Management (BIAM) on a roughly $164 million international equity account....

Fiduciary Trust Appoints New Research Director.
June 21, 2004... Fiduciary Trust Co. has named Stephanie Giroux as its new director of research. Giroux, who joined the money manager on June, replaces 31-year industry veteran Christian Keller. Keller left Fiduciary Trust last month to pursue other...

Third Avenue Hires Managing Director.
June 21, 2004... Third Avenue Management, seeking to better serve its institutional client base, has hired Michael Reeves as a senior managing director, a newly created position. Reeves will oversee the firm's institutional sales and client service...

Vilar Touts Technology as Next Big Thing.
June 21, 2004... With the rise of Internet networks and broadband-enabled telecommunications, the markets may be poised for another technology run, said Alberto Vilar, president and founder of Amerindo Investment Advisors, during a technology press briefing at...

Cash Advances, iPods, Viagra, Fuel 1Q04 Returns.
June 21, 2004... Key stock selections in the pharmaceutical and technology sectors served to yield outstanding returns for the top managers listed in Nelson's MarketPlaceWeb.com first quarter rankings of investment managers. The results of the "World's...

Laffer Jr. : Economy, Stock Market Coincide.
June 21, 2004... Arthur Laffer Jr., president and CEO of Laffer Investments contends that the economic climate is closely correlated to the stock market, and guides his firm with the fundamental marco-economic premise: Incomes policies, interest rates and...

Odds & Ends.
June 21, 2004... *The Securities and Exchange Commission brought charges against four principals at hedge fund manager Beacon Hill Asset Management. John Barry, president, Thomas Daniels, CIO, John Irwin, senior portfolio manager and Mark Miszkiewicz, CFO, are...