Pension Trustees' Interest in Hedge Funds Wanes

With funding of public pension plans generally improving, primarily due to equity markets bouncing back, their interest in hedge funds is waning, HedgeWorld.com reports. A recent Wilshire Consulting study of assets and liabilities of 104 city and county retirement systems, uncovered that pension plan funding has improved much since 2002.

Back then, the ratio of assets to liabilities had a median of 80%, a decrease from the 95% marked in 2001. As a result, a number of pension plans decided to invest in hedge funds. But in 2004, the funding ratio for pension funds improved to 88%.

Steven Foresti, managing director at Wilshire, commented: "Now institutions that are moving to hedge funds are thinking about it and moving in a more strategic way." Foresti predicts that hedge funds will not exceed 10% of a city or county pension fund portfolio.