The Teachers’ Retirement System of Illinois announced today that the retirement system is requesting proposals from consulting firms to assist the system in making prudent investment decisions for the 42nd largest pension system in the United States.
The request for proposal was issued because the five-year contract of the system’s current general consultant, RVK Inc., of Portland, Oregon, will expire later this year. Under state law, contracts for general investment consulting services are limited to a maximum of five years; RVK is invited to submit its own proposal.
“The successful applicant or applicants will demonstrate successful experience in investment strategy, the structure of an institutional investment portfolio, asset allocation, research and sourcing of investment opportunities, performance monitoring, as well as support for a wide range of TRS activities,” according to the press release.
The instructions for submitting a proposal provides clarity on the proposal contents, the evaluation process, and the anticipated timeline in appointing a new investment adviser.
The pension system is strongly encouraging qualified minority, female, disabled and veteran-owned firms to submit proposals, as the retirement system remains “committed to increasing racial, ethnic and gender diversity in all aspects of its utilization of vendors to provide goods and services to the system … within the bounds of financial and fiduciary prudence.”
All responses to the RFP must be submitted via email to TRS by 2 p.m. CST on February 9. According to the release, TRS intends to publicly announce the names of the proposers shortly after the deadline.
Related Stories:
Illinois TRS Commits Nearly $6 Billion
Minnesota State Pension to Seek General Consultants
The Rise of 3rd Party Search Firms That Find Consultants
Tags: consulting, DE&I, Inc., investment consultants, Pensions, request for proposal, RFP, RVK, Teachers’ Retirement System of Illinois, TRS