Calpers And Others Pressure Hedge Funds For More Transparency

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--One of the U.S.'s largest and best-known investors wants more control over the hedge funds it uses.

The California Public Employees' Retirement System, better known as Calpers, the $200 billion retirement plan for the state's employees, is squeezing the 27 money managers that oversee its most exotic strategies.

Its demand: Calpers no longer wants to pool money with other investors in the conventional fund scheme. It wants these managers to trade directly for Calpers' individual accounts, an arrangement that would allow the pension fund to see and control all the securities the manager picks on its behalf.

The scheme known as a separately managed account has long been popular with more conventional stock and bond strategies. Because of the hedge fund industry's recent woes and the heightened concern of clients, it now may gain a foothold there, too.

"We want better control of our money and not be locked down," Clark McKinley, Calpers' chief information officer, said.

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more have not pursued this. Transparency is key especially in this uncertain economy.