Montgomery County Employees' Retirement System, Rockville, Md., will seek legislation to lift its 10% cap on investments in non-U.S. stocks. The system will decide at its June 5 board meeting ''what might be appropriate'' and seek the legislation by the fall, said Julie Dellinger, executive director.
The system also will decide in June whether to ''equitize'' its $22 million long-short portfolio with Numeric Investors. The system also will review whether it should continue to have a mix of open- and closed-ended real estate funds, as well as private and public investments
The system hired BlackRock as its second core bond manager to run a $180 million portfolio. The fund kept J.P. Morgan as its other core bond manager, but terminated Investment Advisers Inc. and Payden & Rygel.
An Investment Advisers official who did not wish to be quoted confirmed the firm had been terminated. Diane Reynolds, a portfolio manager at Payden & Rygel, also confirmed the firm had been terminated.
The $1.7 billion system recently completed an asset-liability study by Wilshire.
Tri-State United Food and Commercial Workers, Norristown, Pa., is considering changing its pension fund's allocation to international equities and may drop the asset class altogether. Trustees of the $380 million fund will hear study results from New England Pension Consultants at the April board meeting, said Peter Huegel, trustee.
The fund invests about 12% in international equity with Putnam Investments. The board has been concerned with the performance of international markets, Mr. Huegel said.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, yesterday introduced a bill that would make it easier for lower-paid workers to contribute to retirement plans. Tax law limits to the lesser of $30,000 or 25% of pay the amount that can be contributed to defined contribution plans. Mr. Grassley's bill would remove the 25% limit. It is co-sponsored by Sens. John B. Breaux, D-La.; James M. Jeffords, R-Vt.; Bob Graham, D-Fla.; Max Baucus, D-Mont.; and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.
Fidelity Investments will begin direct sales of mutual funds to Japanese individuals and through Japanese banks beginning April 1. Six new funds will be introduced for sales directly to individual consumers. They are: the Fidelity Japan Growth, Japan Smaller Companies, U.S. Blue Chip, Europe, U.S. High Yield and Money Pool funds.
Six funds are already available through bank and broker channels.
