The Guarded State

New Jersey's pension fund, under the direction of Orin Kramer, is implementing a relatively modest allocation to hedge funds, yet even that was too much for some trustees in a fund that had never used an outside manager before, as Phyllis Feinberg reports

"Hedge funds are more controversial in New Jersey than in any other state," says Orin Kramer, chairman of the New Jersey State Investment Council, which makes the investment decisions for the $69bn New Jersey state pension fund for public employees. "To some people, investing in hedge funds is the equivalent to using drugs," he adds

Noting that New Jersey's pension fund is unique in that "it had never used an outside manager," Kramer says "there's no state where diversification has been as