Indiana Public Retirement System, Indianapolis, plans to issue an RFP for an investment consultant, David Cooper, chief investment officer at the $29.4 billion pension fund, told the INPRS board at a meeting Friday.
The selected consultant will conduct an asset-liability study of the retirement system, Mr. Cooper said.
The contract of current investment consultant Strategic Investment Solutions expires later this year; the firm can rebid.
The RFP will be posted on the pension fund’s website around May 26. Proposals are scheduled to be due July 2, with a selection expected on Sept. 12.
Separately, the pension fund hired Northern Trust Asset Management and Wellington Management to each run up to $450 million in international developed markets fixed income. Northern Trust will run a passive portfolio, and Wellington will manage its assets actively.
The hires will bring the retirement system closer to its 22% target fixed-income allocation. Its actual fixed-income allocation is 19.25%. Funding came from core fixed income; no managers were terminated.
Also, Blackstone Group received a commitment of up to $200 million to run in an absolute-return strategy. In real estate, INPRS committed $75 million to Stockbridge Value Fund II, a closed-end commercial property fund managed by Stockbridge Capital Group, and $65 million to Exeter Property Group to manage in U.S. industrial properties. All funding will come from cash.
The pension fund has an 8.6% actual allocation to absolute return and a 5.4% actual allocation to real estate.
The retirement system’s investments returned 2.89% in the first quarter, vs. its 2.39% custom benchmark, and 6.35% for the 12 months ended March 31 vs. 7.46% for its custom benchmark. For the quarter, its 12.7% private equity allocation had the highest return at 5.47%, while its 23.6% global equity portfolio had the lowest return, at 0.88%.
