Four of New York City’s five public employee pension funds are boosting their allocations to illiquid investments like private equity in an effort to hit an annual investment return goal.
Boards of directors for the retirement funds for teachers, police officers, firefighters and civil servants voted late last year to raise the share of assets to be invested in so-called alternative investments — which include hedge funds, private real estate and infrastructure — to a range of 29% to 35%, up from 23% to 29%. The increase, effective immediately, comes about a year after New York state raised the cap on how much of pensions’ total assets can be put into alternatives.