In a pivotal moment for Japan’s financial landscape, plans by the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF)  to widen its scope of asset managers have reverberated through domestic markets. With GPIF president Masataka Miyazono’s announcement at the forefront, the world’s largest pension fund embarks on a strategic journey, challenging traditional selection criteria and signaling a shift in investment strategy as Prime Minister Fumio Kishida aims to elevate the standard of the country’s asset owners.

Comments by Miyazono, the president of the world’s largest pension fund, at his media conference on January 19, 2024, captured the attention of market experts and media. He announced plans to open the public pension fund to more asset managers while eliminating certain criteria used in selecting asset managers, such as the minimum scale of assets under management and the number of years of experience in servicing financial products.

GPIF previously required an asset manager company to hold more than 100 billion yen in assets under management. The public fund also mandated that an asset company’s investment product must have at least 30 billion yen in assets with a track record of five years. However, the GPIF has scrapped these numerical criteria, stating it will accept applications from investment management institutions with “a sufficient track record”.

This change has led to assumptions that GPIF will open its door to more asset managers and has raised speculation that it could support the government’s plan to introduce the emerging managers program this summer. The government is aiming to set up a framework to allow newer asset management companies to enter the market.

However, the fundamental understanding stays in place among many fund managers responsible for public pension funds that any public pension fund, including GPIF, will require an asset management company to hold at least 100 billion yen in assets and would require a track record of at least three years.

Enhanced qualitative evaluation

The public fund aims to enhance its quantitative evaluation process, which will streamline the selection procedure for asset managers. Kishida envisions transforming Japan into a wealth management powerhouse, with his government urging pension funds to allocate funds to up-and-coming asset managers. Miyazono emphasized that GPIF’s shift should not be interpreted as aligning with the government’s policy goals, although experts in the industry do not perceive it that way.

“Both GPIF and other asset owners, including corporate pension funds, share a common fiduciary responsibility,” explained Katsuyuki Tokushima, head of pension research and ESG development at NLI Research Institute. “The key question revolves around whether GPIF can confidently entrust a large pool of its funds to an asset manager with a limited track record. We are closely monitoring how GPIF navigates this challenge while enhancing its fiduciary duty.”

Tokushima further elaborated that GPIF’s intention to broaden its manager base holds significance not only for the fund itself but also bears great importance for other asset owners, given its implications for Japan’s future and the government’s objectives.

GPIF’s investment strategy tends to influence other asset owners, corporate pension funds and other institutional investors in Japan amid the public pension fund’s substantial asset size and its role in managing the country’s national pension system. For instance, its asset mix policy, which is reviewed every five years, is closely monitored by Japanese and global market participants, including asset owners.

In recent years, the GPIF has undergone reforms aimed at enhancing transparency, governance, and sustainability in its investment practices. These reforms include incorporating environmental, social, and governance factors into investment decisions and promoting responsible investing practices.

CONSIDERABLE INFLUENCE

GPIF stands as the world’s largest pension fund, managing around 220 trillion yen or $2 trillion in assets. As a key player in global financial markets, the fund’s investment decisions can have significant implications not only for Japan’s economy but also for international investors and markets. Its asset scale gives it considerable influence, often inviting thorough examination from a wide range of financial experts and policymakers in Japan and worldwide.

The GPIF, which started managing funds in 2001, operates under the jurisdiction of Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare. GPIF makes investment decisions based on the policy asset mix of 25 per cent each in domestic and foreign equities, and domestic and foreign fixed income. The current policy asset mix, which started in April 2020, shall meet the investment objective of a real investment return (net investment yields on the pension reserve fund less the nominal wage growth rate) of 1.7 per cent with minimal risks. GPIF reviews it every five years and this year marks the year when it decides its new policy objective this year to be implemented from April 2025.

The GPIF’s massive size and significance stem from its role in managing pension reserves for various public employees and workers covered by Japan’s national pension system, making it a crucial financial institution in the country’s retirement landscape.

In recent years, the GPIF has undergone reforms aimed at enhancing transparency, governance, and sustainability in its investment practices. These reforms include incorporating environmental, social, and governance factors into investment decisions and promoting responsible investing practices.

Around 90 per cent of Japan’s public pension system is funded through premiums and government funding. GPIF, which covers the remaining 10 per cent, is only meant to serve as a supplementary source of funding. Still, greater returns by the fund help strengthen the system. In 2014, GPIF increased its allocation target for equities to 50 per cent from 24 per cent, concerned its previous strategy centered on Japanese bonds would not lead to the returns it needed. It also increased its target allocation of foreign currency-denominated assets to about 50 per cent from about 40 per cent in 2020, further positioning itself to benefit from current market conditions.

PAST AND LATEST DELIBERATIONS

GPIF took the most significant asset allocation shift reform during Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration, in 2013 and 2014. Under “Abenomics”, the GPIF successfully revamped its asset allocation strategy by significantly increasing investments in equities, while slashing its allocations to Japanese bonds which stood at almost 70 per cent before 2013. The fund also adopted a stewardship code, reinforcing its commitment as a long-term investor. Notably, these series of reforms enabled the GPIF to attract top-tier investment professionals from prestigious financial institutions globally, including the current chief investment officer Eiji Ueda, formally a director at Goldman Sachs in Japan, as well as President Miyazono, formally at Norinchukin Bank.

The latest ambitious strategy by the Kishida administration seeks to elevate the asset owners, including GPIF’s standards. He emphasizes the importance of asset managers and owners to enhance their skills and governance structures. As part of this initiative, Kishida plans to establish principles by this summer, defining the roles of pension funds and insurers in ensuring appropriate returns for beneficiaries. Transparency, especially from corporate pension funds, will be a key requirement in this endeavor.

Kishida said in a speech at the Economic Club of New York last September that he aims to boost competition in Japan’s $5 trillion asset management industry, urging new market entrants to convert dormant household savings into investments. He emphasized the government’s commitment to shifting 2,000 trillion yen of household financial assets into investments, with half currently held in cash or bank deposits. Kishida also said to promote sophisticated asset management and attract new players to the sector, noting a 50 per cent increase in funds over the last three years to reach 800 trillion yen within Japan’s asset management sector. But he said there is more to be done as healthy competition in the asset management industry is meant to generating higher investment returns for household, which translate into higher spending and corporate profits.

A former GPIF executive suggested that GPIF’s latest initiative to expand its pool of asset managers could potentially enhance its beta generation by diversifying its investments into alternative assets. “With assets exceeding 220 trillion yen, GPIF essentially becomes a universal owner in the global market, making it challenging to generate alpha,” explained the former executive. “Therefore, the focus shifts towards improving beta. This was one of the strategies we implemented back in 2014 by allocating funds to the JPX 400 Index.”

Moving forward, GPIF is seen shifting toward a more active asset management strategy after Miyazono told at Bloomberg’s Buyside Forum in October that GPIF is in the process of selecting active Japanese stock funds using quantitative and scientific methods. The state pension fund has been selecting active funds for North American and developed country stocks excluding Japan since the fall of 2022. Only 6.9 per cent of domestic equities that GPIF owns are managed by active funds.

Furthermore, GPIF’s plan to expand the managers could stimulate investment in alternative assets, which the portfolio in that field only accounts 1.4 per cent of the entire assets or 2.83 trillion yen since it first started investment 10 years ago and sharply below the investment target of 5 per cent, the former GPIF executive said.

“GPIF’s investment in alternative assets is progressing slowly, but its plan to expand managers could stimulate investment in this asset class,” he said, adding that its current investment in real estate, private equity, and infrastructure are managed through gatekeepers.

STRONG PERFORMANCE

GPIF boasts that it has generated a cumulative return of 132.4 trillion yen or a rate of return of 3.99 per cent on an annualized basis since the pension fund started investing in 2001.

The latest results show that the pension fund booked a record calendar year gain of 34.31 trillion yen in 2023, buoyed in large part by a rise in Japanese stock prices, according to Nikkei.

The fund saw investment returns of 5.73 trillion yen in October-December, amounting to a 2.62 per cent gain, as indicated in GPIF’s quarterly results announced on February 2.

GPIF’s total assets under management grew by roughly 20 per cent in 2023 to 224 trillion yen as stock prices rose at home and abroad. A weaker yen also boosted the value of foreign assets in yen terms.

Global financiers and asset owners are closely monitoring every move that GPIF makes, including their investment results and strategies. The state fund’s plans to broaden their manager selection would have a significant impact on the domestic industry.

“Public and corporate pension funds and other asset owners are closely watching GPIF, but they don’t have to do the same,” said NLI’s Tokushima. “But it will certainly make it easier for them to hire managers if GPIF actually opens the door to expand its manager selection.”

Migros-Pensionskasse (MPK) the CHF28.2 billion ($30 billion) pension fund for Switzerland’s largest retailer, Migros, has just posted returns of 3.7 per cent. MPK CEO Christoph Ryter told Top1000funds.com the below median performance, at least compared to MPK’s peers, was mostly attributable to its allocation to poorly performing local and international real estate that together amount to around 32 per cent of assets under management. The local portfolio returned 0.2 per cent and the international allocation -1.3 per cent.

The latest results contrast to last year when MPK’s high strategic allocation to real estate helped mute the impact of losses in equities and bonds and was the main reason the fund performed better than peers. Still, back then Ryter predicted gains in real estate valuations would begin to vanish, or turn negative.

Ryter isn’t planning any changes in the portfolio ahead of an asset liability management study this year. Conducted every four years, it will inform strategy from the beginning of 2025. MPK’s other allocations comprise nominal value investments (32.8 per cent of AUM) equities (27.7 per cent) and gold (2 per cent) as well as a 5 per cent allocation to infrastructure that sits in the property allocation.

Real estate woes

MPK divides its real estate portfolio between a larger, direct investment portfolio in Switzerland managed internally (comprising around 300 properties) and a smaller international allocation comprising fund investment and collective vehicles. The bulk of the domestic real estate allocation is invested in rental apartments where valuations and demand are usually supported by the increase in the number of people coming to live in Switzerland and a strong renting culture.

One challenge to the strategy in recent years has been finding enough properties in Switzerland to fill the target allocation. Buying and selling is slow, and finding projects and securing permits time-consuming.

MPK has made much progress preparing the real estate allocation for climate change. Strategies include replacing fossil fuel heating with heat pumps and connecting to a district heating network. However, Ryter said although real estate is one of the best asset classes to have an impact on cuttingemissions, it is also important to consider costs when integrating sustainability in real estate, and balancing costs with adding value.

Other initiatives include reducing resource consumption by better aligning consumption to changes in tenant behavior. Another initiative includes investigating the impact of improving insulation and airtight windows, and introducing LED lamps.

The pension fund reports that tenants’ need for charging options for electric vehicles continues to increase. New buildings take this trend into account from the planning stage. For existing properties, MPK will retrofit where necessary. Some 44 properties (14.8 per cent) have over 100 parking spaces with electric charging stations.

Rising interest rates have improved MPK’s coverage ratio, currently 129.4 per cent compared to 124.5 per cent in 2022. Meanwhile, MPK reported administrative costs per insured person are CHF 100.4 while the asset management costs were 35.1 centimes per CHF 100 of assets.

The number of insured people at the end of 2023 was 80,500 (300 more than in the previous year) of which 29,600 were pensioners.

International Women’s Day has come around again and still the stats are not good. The pay gap still exists, there are still too few women in C-suite positions and women have less savings in retirement. So what are you going to do about it?

There are still systemic problems in the structure of western society that mean women are being disadvantaged throughout their working lives, and subsequently into retirement.

This is not just an individual person’s story, it is bad for the economy and all of us, regardless of gender. This year the United Nation’s International Women’s theme is Count Her In: Invest in Women. Accelerate progress, which highlights that closing gender gaps in employment could boost GDP per capita by 20 per cent globally.

This year in the UK women make up 56 per cent of enrolled university students, there are more women enrolled at Harvard than men (51:49) and in Australia, women currently make up 59.5 per cent of all completed university degrees. This is all good news.

But while more women are graduating than men, those statistics do not flow through to the workforce in terms of senior positions or pay.

Across the global financial services sector, women make up only 18 per cent of C-suite positions and on the current growth rate this will be only 21 per cent in 2031. The CFA Institute – often seen as a proxy for the investment industry – shows women represent just 19 per cent of members globally.

According to PwC’s Women in Work 2024, the average gender pay gap across the OECD actually widened from 2021 to 2022, despite women’s participation in the workforce rising. The report shows that in the UK women earn 90 pence to a man’s £1.00, even accounting for similar personal and professional backgrounds.

In Australia, where I live, women in financial services face one of the highest pay gaps of any industry (only behind construction) according to the latest gender pay gap study by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.

The study looked at the 302 financial and insurance services firms in the country and found men on average earned $139,845, and for women it was $103,308 – a 26.1 per cent industry gender pay gap in favour of men. And further, in Australia the median superannuation balance for men aged 60 to 64 years is $204,107 whereas for women in the same age group it is $146,900, a gap of 28 per cent.

So if more women are graduating than men, we need to ask why there is still the pay gap (when we know closing that gap is good for GDP), and why women don’t make it to the higher echelons of the workforce, and why they have less in super.

One of the contributing factors is that the division of domestic labour continues to fall heavily on women (in heterosexual couples). This means women’s careers are interrupted, they are balancing more of the home/work priorities often leading to part time work, or they are overlooked for promotion/don’t put themselves forward. Sometimes this is by choice but often it’s because there is no alternative, or no perceived alternative.

Studies by the United Nations during COVID (when men were at home) and then post COVID have revealed that women take on 70 per cent of informal care and housework demands, which is all unpaid and very time consuming. Put another way women spend about three times more time on unpaid care work than men according to the UN, which says if these activities were assigned a monetary value they would account for more than 40 per cent of GDP.

So let’s get real about the conversation. Are we talking about equality or equity? Are we fighting for an equal playing field – will that ever happen? Or should we be addressing the issue face on?

My personal view is the key to change is addressing the systemic, structural gender stereotypes that disadvantage women.

All of us can do things to change this: put pressure on policymakers to value and recognise the value women make to economies through unpaid care work – initiatives like the suggested paid superannuation on maternity leave in Australia; be prepared to step outside your comfort zone, and challenge your own biases; personally take on more of a load around your own households; be conscious of stereotypes, call them out and be active in changing them.

Hire more women.

Happy International Women’s Day. Next year let’s have something to celebrate.

As global asset owners seek more female talent within investment teams, Australia’s A$99 billion Aware Super said pension funds need to first address a crucial “industry image problem”.  

Speaking at an International Women’s Day event at Aware Super’s Sydney office, the fund’s head of income assets, Sonia Baillie, said the Hollywood-style hedge fund manager stereotype is making it really difficult for young women to imagine themselves in investment roles. 

“[It’s] the Wolf of Wall Street, and it’s Michael Douglas,” she told the crowd, while proposing that the industry speak more about female personalities in leaderships positions, such as Reserve Bank of Australia governor Michele Bullock.  

“I think if we distil that imagery into our young women, they might be inspired to have that input into the economic debate.” 

The Aware event came on the heels of the gender pay gap data from the Australian federal government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) last week. For the first time, the report revealed the base pay and total remuneration pay gaps within large Australian private sector employers (100 or more employees). 

It found the median total remuneration gender pay gap for superannuation and insurance companies was 26.1 per cent in 2022-23, with the median base salary pay gap 24.6 per cent. The superannuation sectors main source of inflow is the legislated contribution from employers, which is 11 per cent of total pay.  

Flexibility in role design crucial 

Aware Super’s Baillie, who came from a private sector asset management background, said if pension funds want to attract women into higher-paid roles in investment teams, there needs to be flexibility in role design. This could include arrangements such as opening up more roles to part-time candidates.   

“Where we see the most under-representation is at that mid-level career. Our early roles… have a great 50/50 representation [of female workers], but it’s at that childbearing age where we seem to see a really big drop off in investment management,” she said.  

Women in Aware Super’s investment team also tend to be in research and responsible investing roles, Baillie said, but getting them into trading, portfolio management and risk-taking roles will be the thing that “really moves the dial” on gender pay gap.   

To do that, funds must be willing to take some risks themselves, she said.   

“I think the employment market is very technically siloed. If you’ve worked in private equity, you don’t ever dream of looking at listed equities because they are so different,” she said.  

“Going to recruiters with a broader mandate and saying ‘this is the skill set we’re looking for’, and really to take the risks to develop those people – I think that is where we make progress.” 

Chair of Aware Super’s trustee board, prominent business woman, Sam Mostyn said that for funds and the broader Australian business world to address issues around gender equality, boards and management must be held accountable.   

Mostyn is also chair of the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce (WEET), which consists of 13 women appointed by the Australian federal government in 2022 which delivered a report with recommendations that will facilitate women’s contribution to the economy in the next decade. 

One of the immediate actions included in the report was paying pension contributions on government-funded paid parental leave. The lack of policy on this front has long been attributed as the reason why Australian women go into retirement with less of a nest egg than men, since they are more likely to take time off work after having children and lose out on pension contributions.   

Mostyn acknowledged that Aware itself has work to do when it comes to addressing gender pay gaps. According to the WGEA data, Aware has one of the biggest total pay gaps among big Australian pension funds (23.6 per cent), compared to peers like the A$198 billion AustralianSuper who had an 8 per cent gap on the same metric. 

“We’re going to face it and talk very publicly about the fact that we’re going to work on it [closing the pay gap]. We’re not going to pretend that we’re perfect,” Mostyn said.   

“The way in which diversity must be allowed to flourish means that there’s going to be often quite difficult conversations, but they must be handled with respect.” 

 The 2024 CIO Sentiment Survey, a global collaboration between Top1000funds.com and CaseyQuirk, part of Deloitte Consulting, finds asset owners increasingly willing to make significant allocation shifts after several years of reticence. They have a greater appetite for risk and are increasingly experimenting with new asset classes, but they are concerned about high public equity valuations.

The 2024 CIO Sentiment Survey finds asset owners increasingly willing to make significant allocation shifts after several years of reticence. They have a greater appetite for risk and are increasingly experimenting with new asset classes, but they are concerned about high public equity valuations.

A year ago at the beginning of 2023, investors remained cautious, awaiting clearer market signals and keeping portfolios in a holding pattern. Now as businesses shift into gear for 2024, the freeze on major allocation decisions has finally begun to thaw.

The 2024 CIO Sentiment Survey, a collaboration between Top1000funds.com and Deloitte management consultancy CaseyQuirk, has found asset owners more confident about meeting their goals. Buoyed by a market rebound and clearer market signals on the trajectory of inflation, they are planning greater shifts in their investment portfolios after years of relative inertia.

Survey respondents were mostly CIOs in public and corporate pensions, but also included foundations, sovereign funds, endowments and insurers. Half were in North America, the other half spread across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific.

With the deep uncertainty of 2022 now in the rear-view mirror, asset owners are feeling more confident due to the performance of markets in 2023 and also the higher funded status of a lot of pensions, said Diane Cullen, senior consultant at Casey Quirk.

“They are taking risk off the table and adding fixed income, but a lot are coming out of 2023 thinking they will make more substantive asset allocation changes whereas before they were sticking to their knitting,” Cullen said.

However while confidence is gradually returning, new challenges have moved in to replace the old. Concerns about high equity valuations are keeping most asset owners from adding to their public exposures. Those most concerned about public equity valuations are drawing down from their active exposures into more passive positions.

New dynamics have also emerged in private markets. Asset owner demand for alternatives has cooled slightly, but remains above demand for other asset classes with particular interest in real assets and private credit.

Tyler Cloherty, managing director and leader of Deloitte Strategy and Analytics’ Knowledge Center, said CIOs were particularly wary about private equity after a tough environment for capital return and exits over 2023.

“A lot of asset owners are structurally over-allocated, and within the bucket of private markets they are thinking about how to adjust their allocations to other sub-asset classes,” Cloherty said, noting more interest in infrastructure and private credit but less in venture.

A changing rate environment as inflation subsides has also called for a long-awaited restructuring of fixed income portfolios. For now CIOs continue to add actively managed core fixed income and high yield investments as yields remain elevated, but geopolitical concerns are leading CIOs to reduce exposures to emerging market debt.

“Last year everyone just kind of stayed put, but a lot of plans are getting unstuck now,” Cloherty said. “Now that markets have–I won’t say normalised but gone back go a more regular pattern than we saw over the preceding 24 months–asset owners have higher confidence to make changes to their structural allocations.”

Smaller rosters, tighter collaboration

Respondents of last year’s survey painted a clear picture of stretched teams inadequately supported by necessary systems and tools, with understaffing and the talent shortage cited as top challenges.

Less so in 2024, with survey data suggesting staffing-related challenges remain, but the pinch has eased. As funds begin to resolve their talent shortage, they are conducting net hiring increases in risk management and compliance staff in a complex environment–particularly mid-sized and large funds.

There is also evidence asset owners are consolidating their manager rosters, seeking closer collaboration and a greater range of services and support from a smaller number of strategic partners. The trend towards greater internal management appears to have moderated, said Cloherty.

“Those who want to build that out have done it,” Cloherty said. “Obviously some are still moving in that direction [of internalising capabilities] but it’s not as big of a global shift as it was a couple of years ago.

“But in the manager environment, it’s incredibly competitive, there are so many managers out there selling similar things, so they are looking at what else they can provide beside their basic mandate.”

But while funds may be trending towards fewer managers, the alternatives universe is an exception to this trend, with asset owners looking to build new manager relationships as they increase their allocations to new, complex asset classes. Almost half of respondents were looking to build relationships with new alternatives managers.

And interestingly, greater experimentation is taking place with new asset classes, especially in private markets and credit as funds seek out investments with lower correlation to broad market movements. Notably, there is growing interest in areas banks are seeking to exit, such as asset-based lending.

“As they are looking at private credit, a lot of the asset owners are also looking not just at direct lending or plain vanilla-type private credit,” said Cullen. “We are seeing the greatest innovation from managers and demand from CIOs in new types of exposures. They are looking at impact lending, asset-based lending, royalties or specialty finance.”

This is particularly evident in larger funds with the scale to cut their alternatives bucket into a greater number of sub-classes, Cloherty said.

For further analysis and all the results click here 

The CalPERS board is likely to wrestle back control of setting the pension fund’s discount rate or investment rate of return, a process that had been done automatically since 2015 when it was enshrined in the pension fund’s risk mitigation policy.

Under the current system, when returns at the $485 billion asset owner exceed 2 per cent of the discount rate, the rate of return is automatically lowered.  A recent meeting of the finance and administration committee in an “information only” item that will go back to the board in April 2024, found enthusiasm to take back control of setting the discount rate, foreshadowing future debate and deliberation ahead around what the discount rate should be.

“I think the board has the wherewithal to make these decisions without this automatic trigger,” said Theresa Taylor, recently re-elected as board president. She  noted how adjustments in the discount rate impact employers and members because it causes their contributions to rise.

“I didn’t realise that anything over 17 points is a 2.5 per cent reduction. That could be pretty hard.”

The trigger policy rests on various conditions. If investment returns outperform the discount rate by 2 per cent, the discount rate is automatically reduced by 0.05 per cent. If returns outperform the discount rate by 7 per cent, the discount rate will automatically reduce by 0.10 per cent. If investment returns outperform the discount rate by 17 per cent, the discount rate will automatically reset 0.25 per cent lower.

“There is a ceiling of 25 basis points when investment returns outperform the discount rate by 17 percentage points,” said Michele Nix, interim chief financial officer.

The trigger has only gone off once. In 2021 when CalPERS returned 21 per cent off the back of record pandemic-fuelled returns in private equity and stocks, the discount rate was lowered from 7 to 6.8 per cent where it currently sits. Prior that that, in 2015 the board lowered the pension fund’s discount rate from 7.5 per cent to 7 per cent, phased in over three years.

Nix explained that the automatic strategy is designed to lock in the benefits of higher returns by lowering volatility over time and providing greater predictability for employers around contribution rates. Exceptional performance of previous years helps to ensure sustainability and reduce risk, she said.

Board member David Miller also voiced his doubt over the automatic trigger. “It is our responsibility to make reasoned judgements on these things. We should have things come back to us for input. It shouldn’t just happen as a matter of course without us stepping up to responsibilities,” he said.

The board heard that many of CalPERS stakeholders are not familiar with the automatic policy which also triggers new strategic asset allocation targets based on the reduction of the discount rate.

Something that typically results in investing in less risky assets. “If you expect to earn less, you can invest in less risky assets,” said Nix. When the discount rate was reduced in 2021 CalPERS had been going through an asset liability study, and the allocation was changed as part of the change in the discount rate, said Nix

CalPERS will conduct another asset liability study in February 2025.

The pension fund is in the process of selecting a new CIO following the resignation of Nicole Musicco last September. Last year the pension fund said it hopes to onboard a new CIO “in early 2024” and has budgeted $300,000 for the hunt, including all search fees.