Santa Barbara County (Calif.) Employees' Retirement System terminated Rice Hall James & Associates from a $35 million active domestic small-cap growth equity portfolio.
The $4.1 billion pension fund's board approved the action at its Jan. 24 meeting, said Rebecca Valdez, investments officer.
The termination was the result of a domestic equity structure study conducted by investment consultant RVK, which recommended consolidating to a single active domestic small-cap core manager from the current lineup of two active style-specific small-cap managers. RVK made the recommendation to simply the portfolio and save on management fees, according to a presentation included with Jan. 24 meeting materials.
The board also approved changing the active domestic small-cap value equity portfolio managed by Dimensional Fund Advisors to small-cap core and moving the assets from the Rice Hall James termination to that portfolio, giving it $69 million.
The pension fund's other domestic equity manager is Mellon Investments, which manages two passive portfolios totaling $623 million.
As of Dec. 31, the actual allocation to domestic equities was 18.1%; the target is 19%.
