New York State Common Retirement Fund, Albany, is looking for a brokerage search firm to provide the $182.5 billion pension fund with “a continuously … updated and vetted pool of broker-dealers to perform execution services” for certain internally managed funds, an RFP said.
The arrangement is new, said Matthew Sweeney, a spokesman for state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, the sole trustee of the pension fund. The RFP is available on the comptroller’s website. Registration is required.
The search firm will focus on broker-dealers who will work with the pension fund’s internally managed fixed-income, equity and short-term funds, the RFP said.
In the past, the pension fund conducted a formal search process of identifying broker-dealers through survey questionnaires, resurveying potential candidates and tentatively approving candidates based on the surveys. Then, pension staff members conducted on-site due diligence of each potential broker-dealer, the RFP said. The selected brokerage search firm will take on these duties, but the pension system will still make the final decision on which broker-dealers to hire.
“The last broker-dealer search process was completed in 2009,” the RFP said. “The list of available broker-dealers has remained largely unchanged since then, providing incomplete coverage on certain parts of the Common Retirement Fund’s investment portfolio.”
The contract for the search firm will run for five years.
Proposals are due by 4 p.m. EST on Dec. 8. Interviews will be conducted in early January, and a firm is expected to be hired in late January. The contract will take effect Feb. 1.
