Anne Arundel County Retirement and Pension System, Annapolis, Md., hired Scout Investments to manage $125 million in an active domestic core-plus fixed income portfolio.
The $2.1 billion pension fund’s board approved the hiring at its Nov. 19 meeting, recently released meeting minutes showed.
Funding comes from the termination of Western Asset Management Co. from a similar portfolio, also approved at the meeting. The minutes cited recent developments related to WAMCO’s former co-CIO Ken Leech.
In August, Western Asset’s parent company, Franklin Templeton, said the SEC had issued a Wells notice to Leech, identifying him as a target of an investigation focusing on “past trade allocations involving Treasury derivatives." Leech has since resigned and been charged by the agency with securities fraud.
As a result of the issues with WAMCO, the pension fund had conducted a search for a replacement. Dodge & Cox and Fidelity Institutional Asset Management were the other finalists.
Investment consultant NEPC assisted.
Anne Budowski, the county's chief personnel officer and member of the pension fund's board of trustees, could not be immediately reached for further information.
