General Signal Corp. outsourced its $930 million in pension assets and laid off its pensions and benefits staffers, said Nino Fernandez, vice president of investor relations.
Marc Katz, director-pension investments and benefits finance, and Robert Bach, director compensation and benefits, left the firm as part of staff restructuring. Mr. Katz's duties have been assumed by Terence Martin, CFO and treasurer.
RogersCasey was hired to manage the firm's pension plan assets, while Buck Consultants will manage the benefits side, Mr. Fernandez said. RogersCasey executives declined to comment.
Mr. Katz and Mr. Bach couldn't be reached.
The Labor Department is delaying the implementation of the new annual report form for pension plans until the 1999 plan year, to give plan sponsors extra time to get ready for it.
The DOL proposed a streamlined version of the Form 5500 last September, and is developing a final version. The first new forms would be filed around July 2000. There was concern about whether plans and service providers would have time to make the changes needed to use the new forms in the 1998 plan year, said Olena Berg, who heads the Labor Department's pension office.
New York State Teachers' Retirement System, Albany, allowed its contract with Chancellor LGT Asset Management to expire Jan. 31, said Candice Ronesi, a fund spokeswoman. Chancellor LGT managed $450 million in U.S. large-cap equities for the $68.7 billion pension fund at year-end 1997.
The contract was allowed to expire because of personnel turnover and structural changes at the firm and a lag in relative performance, said Ms. Ronesi. The money taken from Chancellor LGT will be invested in an internally managed Russell 3000 index fund.
The median manager in InterSec Research's non-U.S. equity universe had a return of 6.7% in U.S. dollar terms vs. an MSCI EAFE index return of 1.9% for the year ended Dec. 31. In local currency terms, EAFE was up 13.8%.
Measured in U.S. dollars, Europe was up 24.1%. In contrast, Japan was down 23.6%; the Pacific Basin, excluding Japan, was down 30.8%; emerging markets, excluding Malaysia, dropped 2.4%. The median manager of European equities in the InterSec universe returned 21.8%; managers of Japanese and Pacific Basin ex-Japan equities were down 14.2% and 28.8%, respectively. The median manager of emerging markets ex-Malaysia returned 8.6%.
Southern California Edison Co., Rosemead, Calif., completed an asset-liability study of its $2.3 billion defined benefit plan.
The study results have to be approved by the investment committee. Dave Ertel, manager of investments, would not speculate on what changes, if any, might be made to the plan's investments. Frank Russell is assisting.
The asset mix now is: 45% U.S. stock; 25% international stock; 22% global bonds; 4% real estate and 4% alternative investments.
