Florida Prepaid College Board, Tallahassee, hired PGIM Fixed Income and Wellington Management as active domestic core fixed-income managers to run a total of up to $1 billion for the $15.6 billion Stanley G. Tate Florida Prepaid College Program and about $220 million for the $571 million Florida 529 Savings Plan.
A letter of intent to award on the state's procurement website did not specify how the assets would be split between the two managers. The board in June issued an invitation to negotiate for a domestic core fixed-income manager to outperform the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond index.
The assets in the prepaid college program are part of the reserve portfolio, which has a target range of zero to 15% of the program's investment portfolio. As of June, all the fixed-income assets in the prepaid college program were in the liability-driven investment portion of the program's portfolio. The investment strategy of the prepaid program is only to meet the actuarially determined liability projections, and LDI fixed-income strategies make up 85% to 100% of the program's total assets. The ITN in June said that a chosen manager would also manage about $220 million as an investment option in the 529 Savings Plan.
Columbia Threadneedle Investments now manages all fixed-income assets referenced in the ITN and was invited to rebid. Whether the firm did so could not be immediately learned.
Bert Wilkerson, director of finance, accounting and risk management, could not be reached to provide further information.
