Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System expects to launch two searches: one for money managers to run passive strategies and the other for a real estate consultant, said Rod June, CIO for the $23.7 billion pension fund, in an email.
LACERS officials could issue an RFP as early as Sept. 9 for one or more managers to run U.S., non-U.S. and global index strategies. LACERS currently has contracts with BlackRock, RhumbLine Advisers and State Street Global Advisors providing the pension fund with access to 13 passive strategies within the U.S. equities, non-U.S. equities, and core fixed-income asset classes. As of Aug. 13, LACERS had about $8.9 billion invested in index strategies.
As of the same date, RhumbLine managed a $4.2 billion S&P 500 portfolio, $357 million Russell 2000 mandate and $156 million Russell 2000 value portfolio. State Street managed a $2.3 billion MSCI World ex-U.S. portfolio, $1.2 billion Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond strategy, $378 million MSCI EAFE Emerging Markets mandate and $346 million MSCI EAFE Small Cap portfolio. LACERS currently has no passive assets invested with BlackRock.
LACERS is conducting the search to "evaluate the current marketplace," said a staff memo for the board's meeting Tuesday. The incumbents will be invited to rebid. Emerging managers will be encouraged to participate in the search.
Proposals are expected to be due Nov. 9, with selections as early as May 2022. General investment consultant NEPC is assisting.
LACERS is expected to launch the real estate consultant RFP as early as Sept. 8.
The pension fund has a 7% target allocation to real estate and had $777 million invested in real estate as of Dec. 31. Incumbent Townsend Group will be invited to rebid.
The deadline to submit proposals could be as early as Nov. 8, with the board tentatively scheduled to make a selection between April and May of 2022.
Both RFPs will be posted on LACERS' website.
