County pension fund put fund manager on notice; Pacific Advisers manages a $100 million account.County pension fund Pension Fund A fund established by an employer to facilitate and organize the investment of employees' retirement funds contributed by the employer and employees. The pension fund is a common asset pool meant to generate stable growth over the long term, and provide pensions for employees when they reach the end of their working years and commence retirement. put fund manager on notice Pacific Advisers manages a $100 million account The $10 billion Los Angeles County employee pension fund put "on notice" the money management firm Pacific Century Advisers Inc., a subsidiary of Los Angeles-based Security Pacific Corp., as manager of a $100 million "small-cap" account. The decision to put Security Pacific on notice followed the recent resignation of William "Beau" Duncan Duncan, city (1990 pop. 21,732), seat of Stephens co., SW Okla., in an oil, farm, and cattle area; inc. 1892. There is an oil industry, and electronics, concrete, and apparel are manufactured. During the late 19th cent., Duncan was a stopping-off place for cattle drivers bringing their herds from Texas to the railhead in Abilene, Kans., Pacific Adviser's chief investment officer. Duncan had a reputation as a manager able to pick stocks of smaller, growth companies. Last month, Duncan left the Security Pacific subsidiary to form his own firm in San Diego, Duncan Capital Management. Duncan took with him Pacific Century's former trader, Mark Freeman, and Rebecca LaFerney, operations supervisor. "The Los Angeles County Employee Retirement Association investment board has put Pacific Century on notice," said Dina Sandoval, pension fund spokeswoman, last week. "They have not been dropped. We are waiting to see who they hire as a chief investment officer before making a decision." A Security Pacific Corp. spokesman last week said the bank holding company would have no comment on county pension fund matters. The nine-member county pension board of investments, led by Chairman Norman Johnson, will be the ultimate arbiter arbiter n. in some jurisdictions the name for a referee appointed by the court to decide a question and report back to the court which must confirm the arbiter's finding before it is binding on the parties. of whether Pacific Century retains the account. In the last three years, the board has been implementing a diversification program, which has moved billions of dollars into the stocks of smaller companies, into real estate and into the international stock market. For Pacific Century, the loss of the Los Angeles pension account would be a blow; it was the money manager Money Manager A business or bank responsible for managing the securities portfolio of an individual or institutional investor. Typically, a money manager employs people with various expertise ranging from research and selection of investment options to monitoring the assets and deciding when to sell them.'s largest account among the $550 million worth of funds under management. Duncan had a very solid track record at Pacific. The money manager had a spectacularly successful year in 1989, posting a 43.1 percent return, compared to a 31.6 percent return of the S&P 500, a broad measure of the overall stock market. Duncan's departure appears part of larger exodus at Pacific Century. Others leaving the money manager since April include Joel Swanson, president and chief executive officer; Edward Mraz, managing director for fixed-income; John Wells, managing director for balanced accounts, Andrew Galagher, vice president, Cele Huntzinger, vice president; and David Wells, senior vice president. A bank spokesman last week said the personnel changes were not unusual in an industry in which there is a lot of job-hoping. |
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