RFP #7116 Retirement System
Investment Consulting Services
RFP #7116 RETIREMENT SYSTEM INVESTMENT CONSULTING SERVICES
PROPOSAL FORMAT AND REQUIREMENTS
The respondent shall deliver one (1) complete paper original, five (5) complete photocopies,
and six (6) CDs containing a complete PDF of the entire proposal to the Purchasing
Department before the deadline.
This RFP has been designed to solicit information critical to the Town’s evaluation of the
respondent’s capabilities. The responses to this section will be a critical component in the
evaluation. The respondent should answer each question in the order presented, repeat each
question, and follow it with the answer and/or required completed form. Answers should be
concise, but complete. Forms, where required, must be included. Respondents are expected to
respond specifically to each question in this section. Failure to respond to all applicable
questions or to provide the completed required forms in this section may result in rejection of the
proposal.
At the very beginning of the proposal, the respondent shall include a letter of transmittal signed
by an individual authorized to bind the respondent.
Following the transmittal letter, the respondent shall provide answers to all of the following
questions in the proposal:
Stability and General Experience of the Firm
1. Please list your firm’s complete name, address, voice telephone, fax number, email address
and website. Include the name and title of your proposed Primary Consultant and the location
from which the consulting work will be done.
2. Please provide a brief history, going back to inception of your firm and your parent
organization. Have there been any significant developments in your organization, such as
changes in ownership, restructurings, or personnel reorganizations within the past three years?
Do you anticipate future significant changes in your organization?
3. Please describe the ownership structure of your organization giving specific details with
regards to your parent and any affiliated companies. Include an Executive Summary of not more
than three (3) pages identifying and substantiating the basis of the respondent’s contention that it
is best qualified to provide the requested services for the Town of Greenwich. Please address
what it is that your firm offers to the Town that completing firms can not offer.
4. Please include an ownership organization chart showing this structure. Show and describe if
any the distinct lines of business or your firm which are in addition to your investment consulting
line of business.
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RFP #7116 Retirement System
Investment Consulting Services
5. How many years has the firm been providing pension consulting services, to DB plans, to
Public Plans, and to Corporate Plans? Please include the categories of services available to
clients during this period.
6. Please describe the financial condition of your firm and include a copy of the firm’s audited
financial statement for the most recent annual reporting period.
7. Is your firm, its parent or affiliate, a Registered Investment Advisor with the SEC under the
Investment Advisor Act of 1940? If not, what is your fiduciary classification? Please state
whether your firm is or is not, a fiduciary as the term is defined by the Employee Retirement
Income Act of 1974. (ERISA)
8. Does your firm have a written Code of Conduct, or Ethics? Please state whether your
employees comply with the Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct of the CFA
Institute or a comparable code of conduct standard?
9. Has the firm, the Primary Consultant(s), or any other Officer or Principal been involved in any
litigation or other legal proceedings or any government investigation or regulatory process
involving allegations of fraud, negligence, and criminal activity, violation of law or regulation,
or breach of fiduciary duty relating to pension consulting activities over the past five years? If
so, provide an explanation and indicate current status.
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Please provide a description of any litigation or discrepancy action in which your firm is
presently engaged, or was subject to in the past five years that involved any fine or for
which you are subject to any professional disciplinary action.
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Please describe any current situation about which you reasonably believe may present a
conflict of interest or create the appearance of a conflict of interest in the event that your
firm is selected to perform the services called for under this RFP.
Depth and Experience of Personnel
10. Provide an organizational chart, across all offices, of the investment consulting portion of
your firm’s business. List the number of employees, professional and support, in each function
and / or location. Indicate any areas of special pension consulting expertise, or designations (i.e.
CFA, CIMA, FSA etc.) these individuals’ possess.
11. Please name and include a brief resume of the person(s) you propose to be Primary
Consultants(s) primarily responsible for the relationship(s) with The Town of Greenwich.
Estimate the percentage of their time dedicated to the Town of Greenwich.
12. Provide an organizational chart specific to the consulting group which would be handling the
Town of Greenwich, including all individuals, functions, positions and titles, with brief resumes.
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RFP #7116 Retirement System
Investment Consulting Services
13. Explain how the Consultant(s) and the team dedicated would function, including Lead
Person, back up, quality control procedures and support services.
14. Identify specific employee expertise in the following areas; Asset Allocation, Actuarial
Services, Economic Forecasting, Performance Attribution, Domestic Equity, Domestic Fixed
Income, International Equity, International /Global Fixed Income, Emerging Markets,
Derivatives (Future, Options), Foreign Currency, Alternative Investments, Private Equity, Real
Estate and any other area of your firm’s specific expertise.
15. Please explain the procedure for addressing The Town of Greenwich issues when the
Primary Consultant(s) or other assigned personnel are traveling or unavailable.
16. Please describe your firm’s back up procedures in the event the key personnel assigned to the
Town of Greenwich account should leave the firm. If applicable, give an example of a situation
where this procedure has been utilized.
17. Please indicate the turnover of professional staff (Senior Management and Consulting
Personnel) over the past three (3) years by giving the following information: Person leaving,
position, end date, reason for leaving and replaced by.
18. Please list key Senior Staff hires over the past three (3) years.
19. Describe your firm’s policy on changing staff assigned to a project. The Town of Greenwich
will reserve the right to pre-approve any replacement of staff assigned to their account. The
Town will have the right to require the replacement of staff if the Town is not satisfied with the
assigned staff person.
Client Base
20. Please indicate the composition of your client base using percentages for each of the
following; Public Pension Funds, Corporate Pension Funds (DB), Corporate Pension Funds
(DC), Foundations, Endowments, Board Designated Funds, and others.
21. Please provide a current list of your ten (10) largest clients including name, contact,
telephone number, asset values, number of years the client has retained your firm and product or
service the client uses. Include 3 public plan clients that are similar to the Town of Greenwich
Pension Plan in assets. Submission of the proposal shall constitute agreement that the Trustees
may contact any of these clients as references.
22. Please give details on the number, name(s) and asset values of any client relationships that
were either terminated or not renewed in the last three (3) years with reasons for the termination
or non-renewal.
23. Please give details on the number, name(s) and asset values of any new client relationship
gained in the last three (3) years.
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RFP #7116 Retirement System
Investment Consulting Services
Investment Policy Analysis and Asset Allocation
24. Describe your general approach to controlling risk. What changes would you make to the
existing IPS?
25. Describe your firm’s involvement in preparing guidelines for investment managers/funds.
26. Discuss in detail the theory and methodology of your asset allocation model. How does your
firm develop asset class assumptions, including returns, risks, correlations, constraints and
scenario forecasting? Include a sample asset allocation report with your response. How do you
use the concept of the efficient frontier in your modeling? Do you use stochastic modeling to
show risk profiles over time?
27. Explain how your firm factors in the characteristics of plan liabilities and endowment
spending policies in your asset allocation process. How do you interact with the Plan’s Actuary?
Please describe your working knowledge of actuarial issues relating to DB plans.
28. Explain your process for recommending an overall portfolio structure for DB plans, giving
particular attention to its relationship with the investment policy and Asset Allocation Plan.
Performance Reporting
29. Please give a brief overview of the software systems used in the production of performance
reports. Is the software developed in-house? Is any production work subcontracted to another
firm? Do you offer on-line capability to clients?
30. Discuss the International Equity, International Fixed Income and Emerging Markets
capabilities of your performance evaluation system. Do you have the capabilities of handling
currencies other than the US dollar, and how many clients use this capability?
31. Discuss the capabilities for performance reporting for derivatives, long / short portfolios and
leveraged portfolios.
32. What methods and sources of data do you use in calculating investment performance of a
client’s portfolio? Do you comply with CFA Institute standards for rate calculation? Do you
reconcile your calculated performance with investment managers and custodians? Describe this
process.
33. Describe how benchmarks are chosen or developed and how performance is compared to
similar portfolios. Can your firm provide custom style benchmarks and universes? Please list all
available universes against which portfolio performance and other attributes can be measured.
Are the returns in your universe actual client returns or composite returns as reported by
managers/funds?
34. What amount of input may the client have in the content and format of an investment
performance evaluation report? Is there flexibility in producing non-calendar period results?
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RFP #7116 Retirement System
Investment Consulting Services
35. Please describe your firm’s process for monitoring investment managers. Relate the process
to a client’s goals, objective, guidelines and investment policy. Specifically include the
monitoring of performance, risk, style integrity, contract compliance, account restrictions,
activities creating potential conflicts of interest, reporting requirements and trading costs.
Portfolio Analytics Capabilities
36. Describe your firm’s methodology and sources of data for analyzing and evaluating existing
or potential manager’s/funds performance. Discuss how your firm verifies the accuracy and
appropriateness of a manager’s/funds performance history submitted by a manager’s/fund in a
response to an RFP.
37. Does your firm maintain a database of investment manager advisors and funds? How many
manager/funds are contained in the database? Please separate the managers/funds by portfolio,
style, capitalization and any other specialty designation. Please describe your expertise in
researching and recommending hedge funds. Please describe how familiar you are and what
relationships you have with our alternative asset fund managers.
38. Describe the screening variables and capabilities of the database. Describe the capability of
providing custom reports.
39. Do you or your vendor charge direct or indirect fees to investment managers to be included
in your firm’s database? What are the fees? How do you prevent conflicts of interest?
40. If you have an in-house database, do you sell it to third parties? How do you receive
compensation?
41. Please discuss in detail your performance attribution analysis. How does it handle
international stock and bond portfolios and portfolios containing derivative investments such as
futures and options?
42. Describe your firm’s criteria for recommending a manager/fund be placed on probation or a
watch list, removed from such, or replaced?
Investment Manager/Fund Searches
43. Please list the number and types of investment manager/fund searches you have completed
over the last twelve (12) months. Also include hedge fund searches completed over the last three
(3) years.
44. Please describe in detail the process used to screen, evaluate and select prospective
investment managers/funds.
45. Please detail the quantitative screening criteria used for the various asset classes and styles
in an investment manager/fund search.
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RFP #7116 Retirement System
Investment Consulting Services
46. Please detail the qualitative information evaluated for the various asset classes and styles in
an investment manager/fund search.
47. Do you charge investment mangers/funds any direct or indirect fees when they are successful
in manager/fund searches that you conduct on behalf of your clients? What are the fees? How
do you prevent conflicts of interest?
48. What is your firm’s philosophy regarding emerging managers who have been in business for
less than three years and manage less than $100 million? Is there a minimum level of assets
under management before you will consider recommending your clients to a fund?
Research
49. Describe the internal structure and organization of your research department. If no separate
department exists, describe how this function is performed.
50. Describe the manner in which external resources and sources of information are used in the
research process. How does your firm integrate internal and external research? Describe how
you bring new investment ideas to your clients and how you determine/recommend the
appropriateness for each individual client. Outline your process for monitoring and reporting on
market trades.
51. Please describe in detail the type and frequency of research provided to The Town of
Greenwich. Through what media would it be provided?
Fees
52. Please provide your views on performance based fees, asset backed fees, flat fees with or
without performance bonuses or any other fee structure recommended or proposed.
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The respondent shall propose a flat fee for a three (3) year contractual period. If there is
the possibility of any additional charges, these should be specified. The Town will
consider the relative benefits of having a flat fee, an hourly fee with a cap or some other
arrangement.

Please include all professional fees (hourly or flat rate) and other expenses required to
perform the services called for.

Please estimate the number of person hours needed to conduct the review engagement,
including preparation of reports and ancillary costs. The proposal should include a
maximum guaranteed cost. Accordingly the proposal is expected to offer the services at
a fee to be stated for each of the three (3) years, and each subsequent year thereafter for
the next two (2) years.
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RFP #7116 Retirement System
Investment Consulting Services
Trading Costs and Fees
53. Please describe your views and experience with commission recapture programs (securities
lending).
54. Please describe your ability to compare the fees Plan pays versus a broad universe of similar
size portfolios. Ideally, the consultant would present a chart showing what percentile the Plan is
of fees paid.
Required Sample Reports
55. Please provide samples of each of the following types of reports:
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Asset Allocation Plan, including analysis of liabilities.
Investment Policy and Procedures Statement or Manual.
Performance attribution analysis including domestic and international equity, fixed
income, emerging markets, derivative securities, and hedge funds.
Case study demonstrating firm’s ability to help client meet/exceed stated financial
objectives.
Quarterly Manager Oversight Reports.
Manger search analysis.
ADV Part I and II
List of Exhibits
56.
Exhibits A, B, C, D, E, and F are provided for general reference by the respondent.
Exhibits G, H, I, J, and K must be completed by the respondent and included in the
proposal.
Exhibit ID
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
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Exhibit Name
Town Insurance Requirement Sheet
Town Endorsement Letter Format
Town Personal Service Contract Format
Investment Policy Statement
November 30, 2014 Asset Report
Asset Allocation Policy
Statement of Qualifications
Minimum Criteria Certification Form
Non-Collusion Language Form
Exceptions Sheet
Insurance Procedure Form