Tallahassee (Fla.) Pension Plan hired Molpus Woodlands Group as its first timber manager to run about $30 million, said Kent Olson, the city’s deputy treasurer-clerk.
The hire is the result of the $1.4 billion pension fund’s creation of a new 5% target allocation to timber following an asset allocation study last November.
Mr. Olson said the total allocation will likely be about $70 million and expects the pension fund to hire two more timber managers, one likely in 2015 and another in 2016.
Funding comes from reductions in the allocations to domestic equity and domestic fixed-income managers; no managers will be terminated.
Investment consultant Segal Rogerscasey assisted.