The Los Angeles Fire and Police Pensions (LAFPP) Public Equity Program includes a direct Emerging Manager Program.  The Public Equity Direct Emerging Manager Program reflects LAFPP’s commitment to broadening participation in its investment program while maintaining strong fiduciary standards in order to optimize risk-adjusted portfolio returns.  LAFPP’s Public Equity portfolio is invested across three strategies: Domestic Large Cap Equity, Domestic Small Cap Equity, and International Developed Equity.  LAFPP has hired various emerging managers across different public equities strategies.  Emerging managers represent more than 15% of the actively managed Domestic Equity strategies. 

The Public Equity Emerging Manager Program defines an emerging manager as “an independent investment management firm that manages less than $3 billion in firm-wide assets.”  To qualify as a candidate for an emerging manager search for a public equity mandate, the firm must meet the following criteria:

• One year of operation as an investment management firm as of the date of the search.

• The portfolio manager(s) assigned to the Plan’s account must each have a  minimum of five years of experience in investment management.

• As of the date of the search, the firm must have a minimum of $30 million in institutional assets under management of which $10 million must be in the proposed investment style.

• The firm must have at least one tax-exempt account under management. 

LAFPP works closely with our general investment consultant, RVK, to select new managers for the portfolio.   When an opportunity arises to add a new manager or strategy, we follow a pre-approved Request for Proposal (RFP) process.

As part of the evaluation, we assess how each potential manager would complement our existing portfolio and manager lineup.  We also consider factors such as organizational depth and resources, stability, investment philosophy, historical performance, and fees.

We conduct both qualitative and quantitative reviews of the firms to identify semi-finalists with the highest potential for success over the next three to five years.  Semi-finalists then undergo a thorough due diligence review process, and finalists are identified.  Finalists are invited to present to the Board of Commissioners (Board).  It is the Board which makes the final selection.

All investment management firms interested in contracting with LAFPP must abide by applicable City of Los Angeles and LAFPP Board policies, laws, and regulations, including the ones highlighted in the Contracting Requirements Section of the website.

If you have any questions, please contact Investments Staff by phone at (213) 279-3020 or by email at [email protected]. Due to contracting restrictions as described in the ordinance and policies below, we encourage contact with Investments Staff rather than LAFPP’s Board members, as contacting individual Board members may result in your firm being disqualified from consideration.  In addition, you may contact RVK at [email protected] for all domestic equity inquiries and [email protected] for all non-U.S. equity inquiries.