Ten investment firms will oversee $400 million of the OPERS pension fund in a program targeting emerging Ohio-qualified and minority-owned managers. Including today’s announcement, OPERS invests more than $1 billion with companies headquartered in Ohio.
The Ohio Public Employees Retirement System Board of Trustees approved the Ohio-Qualified and Minority-Owned Emerging Manager Program in March 2011 to increase the use of local and minority investment managers when the managers offer quality, services and risk/reward comparable to other investment managers.
The goal was to place 1 percent of externally managed public assets with these firms. Funding of the program is expected to take place by the end of the year, pending contract negotiations.
The program is for smaller managers, those with less than $750 million in total assets under management.
Three of the managers are Ohio-based. Four are female-owned, while two are minority-owned, and another is both Ohio-based and female-owned. The managers that OPERS selected for this program are:
- Affinity Investment Advisors
- Credo Capital Management
- Dean Investment Associates
- Elessar Investment Management Company
- First Fiduciary Investment Counsel
- Hahn Capital Management
- Nicholas Investment Partners
- Redwood Investments
- Strategic Global Advisors
- Winslow Asset Management
The Ohio-Qualified and Minority-Owned Emerging Manager program is another example of how OPERS is good for Ohio. OPERS currently has $9.62 billion under management by Ohio-qualified investment managers.
From the market value of securities in Ohio-based companies, to fees we pay to Ohio investment managers and brokers, to direct investment in the companies that do business every day here, the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System is a vital contributor to the Ohio economy.
Just keep investing smart and keep the politics out of our retirement, thank you.
Agree with Julie’s statement. Leave politics out of the equation. You go with the best.
Just because the state is diversifying the pool of those who invest our money doesn’t mean that it is not a smart investment. These firms will be evaluated like all the other firms, if their performance does measure up or meet certain benchmarks they will be terminated. They will will not operate on a “lower benchmark.”
Be interesting to see the returns from these investment firms. I’d guess the percentages will be far lower than the in-house returns. Seems like OPERS has done a pretty good job in this regard. When you “throw the dog a bone” it generally disappears.