Monroe County Employees taps Vanguard for equities

Monroe County (Mich.) Employees Retirement System hired Vanguard Group to manage about $8 million in its Vanguard Extended Market Index Fund, said Joey Becker, retirement specialist at the $205 million pension fund.

The Vanguard fund invests in small- and midcap companies.

The board decided to rebalance its domestic equities portfolio at its March meeting. As part of that rebalancing, it terminated its $4.5 million allocation in the Tortoise MLP & Pipeline Fund, Mr. Becker confirmed. Tortoise no longer managers any money for the pension fund, he added.

The $4.5 million previously allocated to Tortoise will go into the Vanguard fund, while funding for the rest of the allocation will come from a further "rebalance of domestic equities," Mr. Becker said.

The board also decided to split its roughly $13 million smidcap equity mandate managed by Seizert Capital Partners into two separate allocations. After rebalancing, about $6.7 million will go to a small-cap fund and $9.2 million will go to a midcap fund, both still managed by Seizert, Mr. Becker said.

The pension fund currently has an asset allocation of 60.3% equities, 17% fixed income, 14.4% real estate, 5.9% alternatives and 2.4% cash.