California pensions loses 23% of assets, managers get millions in bonuses

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California pensions loses 23% of assets, managers get millions in bonuses

Thursday, August 13th, 2009 | Economics |

Sacramento Bee - CalPERS, CalSTRS award big bonuses despite losses:

California’s two biggest public employee pension funds handed out millions of dollars in bonuses last year to their top executives and investment managers, despite losing billions of dollars. The biggest bonus check, $322,953, went to Christopher Ailman, chief investment officer of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System. It nearly doubled his base pay of $330,000 for fiscal 2007-08.

Ailman’s counterpart at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, Russell Read, received a $208,677 bonus to his $555,360 base pay in August, more than a month after he had resigned from the fund’s top investment job.

Much has been said about private investment firms rewarding failure. Judging from above it isn’t just private companies that pay big bonuses even when they lose money. Government outfits do it, too. That doesn’t make it right, of course. It does suggest that there’s something to the notion of a perverse bonus culture inside the financial community that’s disconnected from reality.

Tags: california, investing