Navy-Marine Corps Relief Fund, Arlington, Va., is conducting an...

Navy-Marine Corps Relief Fund, Arlington, Va., is conducting an invitation-only search for a market-neutral equity manager to run $10 million with an overlay indexed to the S&P 500, said James L. Koltes, chairman of the $202 million system’s asset allocation committee. The system hopes to hire the new manager by the end of the year, increasing its exposure to long-short strategies to $50 million; its other long-short managers are Numeric Investors; Standish, Ayer & Wood; Weiss Total Return; and Salus Capital Management. The system is conducting the search internally. Funding will come from reducing the system’s equity allocation to other managers. Also, the fund has decreased the equity exposure in its market-neutral strategy to 50% from 75%, Mr. Koltes said.