Illinois Teachers' Retirement System, Springfield, will initiate a search before the end of the month for the $37 billion pension fund's first real estate co-investment advisory firm.
Trustees approved extending the co-investment process, which has been used successfully in the pension fund's $3.8 private equity portfolio for more than a year, to the retirement system's $4.4 billion real estate portfolio, David Urbanek, a spokesman, said in an interview.
Two other searches will be posted by June 30 on http://trs.illinois.gov for a general investment consultant and for a new investment performance measurement system.
The consultant search is being launched because state law requires rebidding of contracts every five years. The incumbent, R.V. Kuhns & Associates, will be invited to participate, Mr. Urbanek said.
The current performance reporting system was developed in-house. Now, the retirement system is “seeking solutions to provide better efficiency and flexibility within its internal performance reporting, as well as better integration between TRS and its custodian. Over the last decade, the growth of TRS investments, both in volume and value, has pushed the capabilities of the current reporting system,” Mr. Urbanek said.
