Florida Prepaid College Board, Tallahassee, hired active equity managers PanAgora Asset Management and Boston Co. Asset Management to run a total of about $187 million for the $8.1 billion 529 plan, according to Susan James, director of external affairs.
PanAgora will manage about $124 million in international equity; Boston Co. about $62 million in domestic midcaps. Both are new asset classes for the plan.
Funding will come from terminating Deutsche Asset Management, which ran the assets in active large-cap growth equities, Ms. James wrote in an e-mail.
The hirings are the result of an RFP, completed this year. The board made the changes to diversify its $620.7 million equity allocation as a result of an asset allocation study by Callan Associates, its investment consultant, Ms. James wrote in the e-mail.
Separately, the board is raising Northern Trust Global Investments’ S&P 500 index fund to about $248 million from $189.5 million and decreasing Quantitative Management Associates’ active large-cap value equity portfolio to about $124 million from $192.4 million.
The board will determine the actual equity amounts for the new hires and changed assignments on July 1, when it funds a new allocation for its equity portfolio, Ms. James wrote in the e-mail. The rest of the board’s assets, $7.5 billion, was kept unchanged in domestic fixed income, Ms. James wrote in the e-mail.
Aside from first-time allocations of 20% active international equity and 10% active domestic midcap equity, the new equity mix raises S&P 500 to 40% from 30%, decreases active domestic large-cap value to 20% from 30%. The new mix ends a 30% allocation to active domestic large-cap growth equities, while keeping unchanged the active domestic small-cap equity allocation at 10%.
Callan assisted in the searches.
