Category Archives: Investment management

Former State Chief Investment Officer Tells CalPERS and CalSTRS to Fire Consultant PCA Over Proposed Fix for Poor Private EquityPerformance

How CalPERS’ and CalSTRS’ private equity consultant PCA has demonstrated that it needs to go.

California State Controller Betty Yee, CalSTRS Board Member Blow Off Union Spokesman on Private Equity Fees

California state controller Betty Yee blows off a union official’s request for carry fee information by saying CalSTRS “is being very diligent,” when CalPERS has already gotten the information.

Is CalSTRS Enabling Election Fraud?

CalSTRS provided what appears to be a doctored record in response to a Public Records Act request about a recent board election.

Private Equity Underperformance Denialist, Pension Consulting Alliance, Tells CalSTRS to Fix Performance Problems by Scrapping Benchmark

CalSTRS’ and CalPERS’ consultant, Pension Consulting Alliance, argues for getting rid of benchmarks altogether in a desperate effort to depict investing in private equity as ever and always sound.

Former California Official Blasts CalPERS CEO Anne Stausboll, Staff, and Board for Misconduct

Former California official Tony Butka He deems Chief Investment Officer, Ted Eliopoulos, the head of private equity, Réal Desorchers, and private equity professional Christine Gogan to have been so dishonest with the board that they all have should have received a notice of intent to discharge.

Public Pension Fund Study: High Fee Strategies Like Private Equity Lose Billions Compared to Cheaper Alternatives

A recent report slammed public pension funds for losing money relative to what they could have done by investing in high fee strategies like private equity. And that’s even before incorporating the fact that private equity returns are overstated.

Why You Should Care About CalPERS’ Staff’s and Board’s Incompetence in Private Equity and What You Can Do About It

Why you need to help CalPERS kick its bad private equity habits.

CalPERS Board Members Defend Poor Performance by Staff, Capture by Private Equity

“It’s shocking to see how many of the CalPERS investment committee are utterly ignorant. Aren’t these people supposed to know something? “

How CalPERS’ Consultant, Pension Consulting Alliance, Promotes Intellectual Capture by Private Equity

One of the not-well-recognized channels by which private equity orthodoxy, meaning general-partner-favoring party line, is propagated and defended is via private equity consultants. CalPERS’ consultant, Pension Consulting Alliance (PCA), performed this role during the most recent Investment Committee meeting.

CalPERS’ Senior Investment Officer Flouts Fiduciary Duty by Refusing to Answer Private Equity Questions

In the last CalPERS Investment Committee meeting, one of the most revealing incidents took place when Investment Director Christine Gogan repeatedly refused to answer a simple, direct question about a widely-used private equity tax abuse, management fee waivers.

CalPERS’ Chief Investment Officer Invokes False “Superior Returns” Excuse to Justify Fealty to Private Equity

In the last Investment Committee meeting, CalPERS’ chief investment officer Ted Eilopoulos invoked the One Excuse That Rules Them All for investing in private equity. It happens to be bogus.

CalPERS, an Anatomy of Capture by Private Equity

One of the strongest, most consistent reactions of experts who watched the video of the last meeting of CalPERS’ Investment Committee was that the staff and the Investment Committee members, save JJ Jelincic, were completely captured by the private equity industry.

Fortune’s Dan Primack Takes Up CalPERS’ Private Equity Scandal, Calls Head of Private Equity “Factually Wrong”

Dan Primack of Fortune has weighed in on what he calls the private equity “mess” at CalPERS, in an important new story, “CalPERS still can’t get out of its own way on private equity.”

Congressional Black Caucus Still Trying to Hurt Their Constituents By Killing the Labor Department Fiduciary Rule

Last year, the Huffington Post published the definitive take on the Congressional Black Caucus’ frequent sellouts to Wall Street, and how Maxine Waters has attempted to shut it down. Their public image as the conscience of the Congress belies a coziness with bank lobbyists and an open willingness to do their bidding. Ten CBC members […]

CalPERS Chief Investment Officer Defends Tax Abuse as Investor Benefit

CalPERS Chief Investment Officer made statements to the Investment Committee that are demonstrably false. As a video of the August Investment Committee meeting shows, Eliopoulos apparently does not grasp how a common tax avoidance scheme by general partners is not beneficial to limited partners. Even worse, he failed to mention that the IRS has recently proposed rules to end this tax abuse.