The board of trustees of the $2.3 billion Chicago Policemen's Annuity & Benefit Fund approved the recommendation of its investment committee to formally terminate Blueprint Capital Advisors at a Jan. 31 meeting, confirmed Thomas Beyna, president of the board and interim chief investment officer, in an email.
During a Jan. 28 investment committee meeting, the pension fund's consultant, NEPC, recommended the termination of Blueprint Capital following the departure of Catherine Beard, a principal and director of research, in September.
Mr. Beyna said NEPC downgraded BCA after Ms. Beard's departure and recommended that the pension fund not make new commitments to the specialist credit funds-of-funds manager, Mr. Beyna said.
NEPC also advised "Chicago Police to begin the process of working with BCA to wind down the fund in a prudent manner, in line with the fund structure and its underlying investments," Mr. Beyna said in his email, noting that the "this wind-down will occur gradually over time."
Jacob Walthour Jr., Blueprint Capital's co-founder and managing principal, said Rita Sallis, who previously was a senior adviser to BCA, was named principal and a voting member of the firm's investment committee, in an email.
Mr. Walthour did not respond to an email request about whether Ms. Beard has been directly replaced as director of research.
The policemen's defined benefit plan first hired BCA to manage a fund of funds of credit and yield-bearing strategies in April 2017. The initial allocation was $25 million, and an additional allocation of $28 million was made in December 2017.
How the proceeds from the Blueprint Capital redemption will be redeployed in the pension fund's portfolio could not be learned.
