The Iowa Public Employees Retirement System (IPERS) has received wide interest in its search for active management that can show high performance regardless of the manager’s asset class or benchmark, collecting more than 700 proposals by the December due date.

The $31bn system is using the unconventional RFP to help it take a more holistic view of its public markets portfolio options and identify topperforming managers across a range of traditional asset class “silos.” IPERS is open to a wide range of investments that are primarily comprised of liquid, publicly traded securities, looking for strategies that show
“persistent risk-adjusted alphas that are uncorrelated with IPERS’ strategic asset allocation, liabilities, and the alphas of other public market products within the IPERS investment program.” It issued a request for proposals in October, with assistance from Wilshire Consulting, and proposals were due December 8.

The response has been overwhelming, according to IPERS spokeswoman Judy Akre. All 25 of IPERS’ current active public markets managers and products were automatically included in the search, Akre said. No decisions have been made yet, and IPERS has not yet set a timeline for the next stages of the search.

“There is no established timeline,” Akre told MMR. “We are still evaluating the manager responses.”

IPERS also has not set a firm target for the amount it would invest through the RFP, or the number of managers it would hire, Akre said.

Read the full story: Iowa receives wide interest in unconventional alpha search

Published by Money Management Report/Pageant Media.