Stanislaus County seeks help with private markets portfolio

Stanislaus County Employees' Retirement Association, Modesto, Calif., is searching for a private markets consultant or customized fund-of-one manager, said Chris Wisdom, retirement investment officer.

The $2.1 billion pension fund issued a request for information from firms that could design and implement a private markets program. The pension fund, as part of an asset allocation overhaul in April 2017, created a new private equity target of 5% and increased the private credit target to 6% from 4.9%. Among other changes at the time were reductions in domestic large-cap equities to 16% from 33% and domestic small-cap equities to 3% from 10.1%. The pension fund currently has an allocation of 4.6% to direct lending funds, and has no private equity exposure.

Mr. Wisdom said the RFI is open to firms interested in a traditional consulting arrangement or possibly a customized fund-of-one separate account. It may or may not lead to a formal RFP process, depending on responses, according to the RFI.

According to the pension fund's Feb. 28 investment report, the actual allocation as of that date was 37.4% domestic equities, 22.2% international equities, 19.8% domestic fixed income, 7.5% real estate, 6.5% risk parity, 4.6% direct lending, 1.1% infrastructure and 0.9% cash.

The RFI is available on StanCERA's website. Responses are due at 4:30 p.m. PDT on May 11. A timeline for a decision has yet to be determined.