Having no “plan” makes no sense. Having an “always behind the 8-Ball late, rigid asset allocation that perennially finds new things to do at the top of a performance cycle” is also very common problem. Having a “yeah whatever, do what you have to do to get me that return” with $600 billion in assets will be interesting to watch.

CalPERS Board Votes to Approve Total Portfolio Approach

The California pension approved the proposed change to implement TPA—the first institutional allocator in the U.S. to do so—by July 2026.

By Matt Toledo

The board of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System voted Monday to adopt a “total portfolio approach” for its $589.54 billion portfolio, a change from its current strategic asset allocation portfolio design.

The total portfolio approach views and manages portfolio assets under a single objective, in contrast to strategic asset allocation, in which separate asset classes are siloed and managed separately. TPA has become increasingly appealing for asset owners in recent years.

Roger Urwin, a co-founder of the WTW Thinking Ahead Institute and among the pioneers of TPA, has written that the approach is not simply an investment method, but is “governance reimagined through a systems-lens.”

In September, CalPERS conducted a first reading of a new asset liability management policy that included the adoption of TPA.

Read the article here.