Daily Kos: Nation's LARGEST Union Pension Fund Sends A Shiver Through Hedge Funds

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/15/1330022/-Nation-s-LARGEST-Union-Pension-Fund-Sends-A-Shiver-Through-Hedge-Funds?detail=email

I'm all for change happening through action in the streets. But, it doesn't hurt to send a little tremor into the world of the elites in other ways. And that's exactly what the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CALPERS) has just done.

CALPERS "Covers more than 1.3 million active and retired state, local government, and school employees and their family members", essentially all unionized public sector workers. It has $300 billion in assets. Six of the 13 board members are elected by the workers' representative organizations, and another 2 are chosen by the governor.

When CALPERS acts, the rest of the pension fund world listens.

Attention, please:

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the nation’s largest pension fund, will eliminate all of its hedge fund investments over the next year on concerns that investments are too complicated and expensive.

The pension fund, which oversees $300 billion, said on Monday that it would liquidate its positions in 24 hedge funds and six hedge fund-of-funds — investments that total $4 billion and more than 1 percent of its total investments under management.

The decision, after months of deliberation by the pension fund’s investment committee, comes as public pensions across the United States are beginning to assess their exposure to hedge funds. It is likely to reverberate across the investment community in the United States, where large investment funds look to Calpers as a model because of its size and the sophistication of its investments.

And:

FULL story at link.