Over 60 respond to pension consultant request for information

Pension Consulting Alliance managing director Judy Chambers said the interest shown by managers was ‘in line’ with the consulting firm’s expectations. The next steps in the process are up to the pensions who will be provided the information requested by the PCA.

More than 60 infrastructure managers have responded to a request for information (RFI) by the Pension Consulting Alliance (PCA) on behalf of its clients.

PCA managing director Judy Chambers told Infrastructure Investor at the PEI Infrastructure Investor Forum that the number of responses was “in line” with the pension consulting firm’s expectations for the RFI.

PCA launched the RFI early in August as a way to give its clients more information about the infrastructure managers that are currently in the market and what they have to offer to US pension investors.

The responses were due Friday, 25 September.

Chambers said the PCA will next pass on to its clients the information it has received and the clients will “think about what they want to do with it”. They could pursue requests for proposals from certain managers she said, or request to meet with select managers, for example.

The PCA will not extend advice to the pension clients unless they specifically request it, Chambers said.

Chambers said the PCA has been talking about an RFI for infrastructure managers with its pension clients since early 2008.

PCA’s clients include the $193.3 billion CalPERS and $123.8 billion CalSTRS pension plans, the State of Oregon Investment Council, the Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System, Los Angeles Fire and Police Pensions and the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, among others.