The $198bn New York City Pension Plans are rebalancing towards the extreme ends of their asset allocation ranges in response to market conditions, pulling away from high-priced U.S. equities and high-yield fixed income.

CIO Scott Evans said at the funds’ common meeting on April 18 that the pension plans will become tactically overweight in some asset categories and underweight in some others, bracing for the impacts of rising interest rates and the potential for a decline in equity values. The pension plans will not exceed limits in the strategic asset allocation policy, and would come back to the pension plans’ boards before doing so, he added.
Evans attributed the tactical shift to increasing volatility, the Trump administration’s newly-aggressive trade policy, high equity valuations, and other factors. The pension plans, as long term investors, still believe in the approved asset allocation for the long term, but even a less-than-nimble system like the city pension funds should be able to adjust to changing circumstances, he said.

“We’re a big oil tanker, as a pension plan,” Evans said. “We point that sucker northeast and we’re headed to that destination, and it doesn’t pay for us to fool with the settings that much unless it becomes very obvious in a calm period of time that there is the possibility of a very bad storm afoot. We’re in one of those times now.”

Read the full story: NYC pension plans to ease up on U.S. equity, high yield

Published by Money Management Report/Pageant Media