Fresno County (Calif.) Employees' Retirement Association reduced its allocation to TIPS by two percentage points and shifted the assets to an existing allocation in a BlackRock core-plus fund, according to an audiocast of the $3 billion retirement fund's March 7 board meeting.
The board approved reducing the TIPS allocation, managed by State Street Global Advisors, to 1% from 3%. The approximately $60 million was moved to the BlackRock fund, which managed $161 million for the county pension plan as of Dec. 31.
“It's a minor tweak to the portfolio that we believe will result in a greater rate of return,” Jeffrey MacLean, CEO of Wurts & Associates, the system's consultant, said during the meeting.
Separately, the board approved placing Oechsle International Advisors on watch for performance. Oechsle ran $228.6 million as of Dec. 31 in active international growth equity. L. Sean Roche, chief investment officer of Oechsle, was not available for comment.
Also, Mr. MacLean reported the fund returned 4.75% for the fourth quarter and -0.1% for the year ended Dec. 31, underperforming the policy benchmark of 0.1% for the year.
Real estate was the best asset class for the year, returning 9.1%; domestic fixed income, 6.9%; private equity, 3.5%; domestic equity, 0.9%; hedge funds, 0.4%; international equity, -11.3%; and commodities, -13.2%.
