Chase Capital Preservation
NEW YORK - The $29.2 million Chase Capital Preservation Fund named Dwight Asset Management as a subadviser. The GIC alternative fund for defined contribution plan sponsors had been run in-house.
Chase also named Regis Retirement Plan Services to market and distribute the fund. Both Dwight and Regis are United Asset Management affiliates.
Crain Communications
CHICAGO - The $40 million Crain Communications Inc. profit-sharing plan will begin allowing employees to direct their own investments. Crain selected Comerica Bank to provide administration, daily valuation, record keeping, employee communication and education, according to Bill Morrow, executive vice president.
The plan will offer five investment options: the AIM Balanced Fund; AIM Constellation fund; Fidelity Advisors Growth Opportunity Fund/A; Comerica 500 fund, a Standard & Poor's stock index fund; and an investment contract fund.
Previously, all of the assets had been invested in guaranteed investment contracts and synthetic GICs. Administration had been handled internally.
Initially, $30 million of the plan's $40 million - from GICs that matured in September and October - will be eligible for self-direction by employees. The rest of the plan's stable value investments - due to mature in 1997 and 2000 - will be categorized as "the Crain Fixed Account."
The search was conducted in-house.
Crain Communications is the parent of Pensions & Investments.
Crown Vantage Inc.
OAKLAND, Calif. - Crown Vantage Inc., Oakland, Calif., hired Frank Russell Trust Co. to manage its entire $200 million pension plan. Plan assets are invested in Russell's Equity I, Equity II, Fixed Income I and International funds. Crown Vantage is a new company that was spun off from James River Corp. last year, a Crown spokeswoman said.
Equitable Capital
BOSTON - Equitable Capital has named Robertson Stephens Investment Management to subadvise two annuity funds. The funds are clones of Robertson Stephens' retail mutual funds: Value+Growth and Growth & Income.
Farm Credit Bank
AUSTIN, Texas - Farm Credit Bank of Texas hired Fidelity to provide a brokerage option for its $47 million 401(k) plan, effective July 1, said Pat Garrison, benefits manager. The addition is being made in response to requests by participants, who want to trade individual stocks and bonds themselves, she said. The plan's existing seven investment portfolio options will be unaffected.
Fortis Series Funds
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Fortis Series Funds hired Dreyfus as subadviser for a new S&P 500 index fund portfolio and T. Rowe Price for a blue-chip stock portfolio. Both are in Fortis' variable annuity program.
Hoechst Marion Roussel
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Hoechst Marion Roussel Inc. formerly Marion Merrell Dow, hired T. Rowe Price Associates to provide bundled services for its 6,000-participant 401(k) plan. Seven T. Rowe Price investment options are offered. T. Rowe Price also is providing daily valued record keeping, administrative and participant education and communication services.
The plan previously was unbundled, using monthly valued record keeping from Hewitt Associates and five investment options from different managers, said Helen Heffner, a spokeswoman for Hoechst Marion Roussel. She would not give the size of the fund.
Injured Workers' Insurance
TOWSON, Md. - The nearly $800 million Injured Workers' Insurance Fund hired two small-cap managers, said CIO Robert E. Merritt. T. Rowe Price Associates and Brown Capital Management each will run $20 million in emerging growth-type portfolios, he said. Assets will come from a reduction in an S&P 500 index fund managed by Bankers Trust. Wilshire assisted.
Los Angeles County
PASADENA, Calif. - The $18.7 billion Los Angeles County Employees' Retirement Association picked incumbent Coopers & Lybrand as its auditor following a search. Finalists were Peat Marwick and Deloitte & Touche. The contract is for five years.
Milwaukee County
MILWAUKEE - Officials for the $1.2 billion Milwaukee County Employees' Retirement System hired their third international equity manager, and may conduct a search for a hometown fixed-income manager, said Jac R. Amerell, director.
In international, Rowe Price-Fleming received a $10 million assignment, Mr. Amerell said. He also said the board will decide on a search for a Milwaukee-based manager this month or next.
The board also will decide whether to rebalance its asset mix or adjust its investment policy, he said. That's because its equity allocation has gone three or four percentage points above its 50% target. A rebalancing would shuffle assets among existing managers, he noted.
Separately, the board is taking a look at indexing part of its portfolio, and possibly increasing its use of commission recapture, although those actions are very preliminary, and no decisions have been made, he said.
Navy-Marine Corps Relief
ARLINGTON, Va. - The $134.2 million Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society hired Columbia Partners to manage $5 million in core domestic equities, confirmed retired Lt. Col. George F. Warren, the fund's treasurer. Funding came from reducing the allocation to convertible securities, managed by Oaktree Capital Management. Oaktree now will manage about $12 million.
"We think convertibles is not the right place for us right now," Mr. Warren said. The fund, which has no foreign investments, also "will keep our eyes open to do an overseas investment," he said.
New York State & Local
ALBANY, N.Y. - The $74 billion New York State & Local Retirement Systems allocated an additional $50 million to Progress Investment Management's pooled fund, bringing the total to $116 million. Funding came from cash flow.
In turn, Progress, a manager of managers, allocated $19 million each to Tanaka Capital Management and Fortaleza Asset Management for midcap growth portfolios.
The remaining $12 million will be split among the four existing managers in Progress' pooled fund: Paradigm Asset, Brown Capital, New Amsterdam Partners and Valenzuela Capital Management.
Northern Telecom
NASHVILLE - The $900 million U.S. 401(k) plans of Northern Telecom Inc. added four investment options. Delaware Management will run an international equity commingled fund. Three mutual funds were added: Baron Asset Fund, a small-cap fund run by Baron Capital Management; Mutual Qualified Fund, a growth and income fund run by Heine Securities; and DFA 6-10, a passive small-cap fund run by Dimensional Fund Advisors.
Four existing options are managed by Bankers Trust; the fund also has a company stock option.
Oklahoma Teachers
OKLAHOMA CITY - The $3.4 billion Oklahoma Teachers' Retirement System allocated an additional $100 million to Liberty Investment Management, according to Tommy C. Beavers, executive director. The assets were transferred from a terminated manager whom Mr. Beavers declined to identify. The additional allocation brings Liberty's total under management for Oklahoma Teachers to $500 million.
Pioneer Group
BOSTON - The Pioneer Group picked Boston Financial Securities as subadviser to the $27 million open-end Pioneer Real Estate Shares, a mutual fund that invests primarily in equity securities of REITs and other real estate industry companies. While Boston Financial will be providing advice on investments, the fund will continue to be managed in-house by Pioneer.
Robeco Group
ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands - Mutual fund giant Robeco Group hired Midland Securities Services to serve as custodian for 700 million (U.S. $1.07 billion) in U.K. bond and equity funds. Midland also will provide stock-lending services.
Robeco's decision to review its custodial arrangements for its U.K. assets was partially motivated by the sale of its previous custodian, NatWest Investment Services, to Lloyds Bank last year.
Frank Russell Co.
TACOMA, Wash. - Frank Russell Co. added Johnson Sterling Paul Securities to its Frank Russell Investment Management Co. manager-of-managers program. The firm will offer pension consulting services to defined contribution plans using Frank Russell's managers.
JSP Securities specializes in consulting to defined contribution plans of medical groups, law firms and academic medical centers throughout the eastern United States. It advises $300 million in assets, mainly from 403(b) plans.
The firm now plans to expand its client base into privately held corporations, engineering firms, accounting firms and others under the arrangement with Frank Russell, said JSP partner Sam Johnson.
Sheet Metal Workers
CAROL STREAM, Ill. - The $69 million Local No. 265 of the Sheet Metal Workers Union hired Columbia Partners to manage $4 million in small-cap domestic stocks, said George Slater, business manager. The move resulted from an asset allocation study conducted last year by The Marco Consulting Group. Funding is coming from equal reductions in allocations to two large-cap managers, Chicago Asset Management and IDS Advisory Group, Mr. Slater said.
Taunton Contributory
TAUNTON, Mass. - The $60 million-plus Taunton Contributory Retirement System picked INVESCO Realty and Fidelity Management Trust to manage $1.5 million each in real estate, said Paul J. Slivinski, executive secretary. INVESCO will manage its portion in a publicly traded REIT; Fidelity, in a private REIT and commercial mortgage-backed securities. The money is coming from contributions.
Fund officials decided on the search because their current real estate investment is in a closed-end commingled fund that doesn't allow reinvestment of dividends.
Teledyne Inc.
LOS ANGELES - Teledyne Inc., Los Angeles, hired BZW Barclays Global Investors to provide bundled services for its $100 million 401(k) plan. The plan will move to daily valuation from quarterly in April, offering 11 investment options, including company stock and 10 diversified options, all managed by BZW. The firm also will provide record keeping, trust and administration and employee communications and education.
Teledyne previously offered four investment options managed by Bankers Trust. W.F. Corroon was the record keeper.
Threadneedle
LONDON - Threadneedle Asset Management appointed Chase Manhattan Bank as its sole custodian. Threadneedle had used seven other firms as well as Chase for custody of its $44 billion in assets under management. The seven firms are J.P. Morgan, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyd's Bank, Citibank, Chemical Bank, Midland Bank and Bank International Luxembourg.
USAA Investment Management
SAN ANTONIO, Texas - USAA Investment Management picked Bankers Trust to provide an S&P 500 index fund to be marketed to its 3 million members as well as the general public. The index fund will be offered alongside USAA's 32 other no-load funds.
Jack White & Co.
SAN DIEGO - Jack White & Co. has selected several subadvisers for its new Value Advantage Plus variable annuity product.
Alliance Capital Management will manage money market, international and aggressive stock funds; Federated Investors will run growth and income, utility and corporate bond funds; Lexington Management Corp. will run a natural resources stock fund and an emerging markets stock fund; Massachusetts Financial Services will run emerging growth, high yield and global bond funds; Montgomery Asset Management will run a growth stock fund and emerging markets stock funds; Strong Advisory Services will run a growth fund, a government bond fund and a total return bond fund and an international stock fund; Twentieth Century will run a balanced fund and a growth fund; and Van Eck Global will run a gold and natural resources fund and a worldwide bond fund.
Williamsburg Investment
RICHMOND, Va. - The Williamsburg Investment Trust, a mutual fund family advised by three companies, selected Oechsle International Advisors to run a new international equity fund as a subadviser. The advisers in the fund family are: Lowe, Brockenbrough & Tattersall; Flippin, Bruce and Porter; and T. Leavell & Associates. They share a single administrator -Midwest Group of Funds - and offer the funds to clients and associates. The funds are not marketed to outside investors.
