(Bloomberg View) — Last August, we called out the San Diego County retirement fund for paying way too much in fees to Salient Partners, its outside pension fund manager. Terrific reporting by Dan McSwain at the San Diego Union-Tribune alerted readers to a dramatic increase in the use of leverage once Salient took the reins.
Last night, the county fired Houston-based Salient, according to the Union-Tribune.
Last year's events made for a great local comparison between San Diego County and the City of San Diego. The two local municipal regions each have a separate retirement system for employees.
The county system was highly leveraged, expensive and performed poorly. According to Wurts Associates, the San Diego County pension fund ranked in the lowest quintile of returns (84 out of 100) during the past three- and five-year periods.
To goose returns, the county hired Salient, which increased leverage three-fold to 100 percent of the assets in the fund. For this high risk strategy, Salient Partners was to be paid $10 million a year.
As we noted last year, contrast this with the local competition, the City of San Diego, which had its own pension problems a decade ago. After fraud and conspiracy indictments in 2006, and Securities and Exchange Commission charges in 2008, it cleaned up its act.
The City of San Diego simplified its pension plans. It barred the use of leverage; it now favors a low-risk, asset-allocation approach. As we discussed last year, it is reaping the rewards. The city's fund has outperformed the county's, earning 13.6 percent a year versus Salient Partners returns of 9.7 percent a year. That's before fees; the city's net returns with its much lower cost-basis, look even better after fees.
By contrast, San Diego County spent $103.7 million in investment and administrative fees in 2013. The $10 billion pension fund is one of the highest-cost plans in the country as a percentage of assets.
