A project of theRetired Public Employees'Association of CaliforniaNot affiliated with CalPERS,but dependent on them for ourmembers' retirement benefits
CalPERS Investment Committee · Every Action Item · 2013–2026
A decade-plus of investment decisions, highlighted
Every Investment Committee meeting agenda from February 2013 through March 2026, reproduced as published — with each action item color-coded and linked to its agenda materials and to the certified transcript of the discussion.
What the Committee Actually Voted On
We’ve compiled thirteen years of CalPERS Board Investment Committee agendas —
98 meetings in all — to see what the committee actually voted on while overseeing
the investment program of the largest public pension fund in the United States.
What we found is striking. Across those thirteen years, the committee took action on
174 items. We have organized those action items below by the kinds of issues the
committee actually considered: asset allocation and investment policy revisions,
divestment questions, legislation, corporate governance, service-provider contracting,
litigation, and a small number of direct investment transaction decisions.
Those categories reflect the record we found — not the subjects one might
naturally expect to dominate the work of an investment decision-making body. Most of
the votes concerned the administration of the Public Employees’ Retirement
Fund’s investment program, while a small number dealt with affiliate funds for
much smaller programs.
What is largely missing are votes on core investment oversight questions: investment
strategy, the assumption of major risks, fees, leverage, and conflicts of interest. In
several of those areas, we found very few votes. In others, we found none.
Our other core finding is the steady — and ultimately dramatic — decline
in the volume of committee votes. In 2013, the committee took action on 35 items. By
2025, that number had fallen to just three. The trend is shown in the graph
below.
Action items fall from 35 in 2013 to 3 in 2025, counting open-session, closed-session, and no-action items. Switch to open-session action items to see only the public, transcribed votes.
We’ve reproduced all of the agendas below and color-coded them so readers can
see where the rare action items occurred. The color coding also shows the category we
assigned to each action item. Click on any color in the key to the right of the agendas
to see a list of all items in that category.
Twenty-one of the 174 action items were decided in closed session. For those items,
the public record shows that a decision was made, but not the discussion that led
to it.
How to Use This Site
The agendas below reproduce the CalPERS Board Investment Committee record collected
for this project. Highlighted items are the agenda items that were designated for
committee action.
Click on any highlighted item to open its agenda materials. Where a
public transcript is available, click the red [Transcript]
link beside the item to read the verbatim record of the committee discussion in a
pop-up window, opened to that exact point in the meeting.
The color-coded key on the right lists the categories we assigned
to the action items. Click any category to see every item in that category across the
full record, with links to the relevant materials and transcripts. You can also
collapse the key with the − button to free up screen space.
Use the search bar to find items by date, agenda item number,
category, or phrase. The search tool shows the number of matches — for example,
“2 of 3” — and the ▲ / ▼ arrows let you
move through them one at a time.
Closed-session portions of agendas are shown on a light gray background.
What the Committee Actually Voted On
We’ve compiled thirteen years of CalPERS Board Investment Committee agendas — 98 meetings in all — to see what the committee actually voted on while overseeing the investment program of the largest public pension fund in the United States.
What we found is striking. Across those thirteen years, the committee took action on 174 items. We have organized those action items below by the kinds of issues the committee actually considered: asset allocation and investment policy revisions, divestment questions, legislation, corporate governance, service-provider contracting, litigation, and a small number of direct investment transaction decisions.
Those categories reflect the record we found — not the subjects one might naturally expect to dominate the work of an investment decision-making body. Most of the votes concerned the administration of the Public Employees’ Retirement Fund’s investment program, while a small number dealt with affiliate funds for much smaller programs.
What is largely missing are votes on core investment oversight questions: investment strategy, the assumption of major risks, fees, leverage, and conflicts of interest. In several of those areas, we found very few votes. In others, we found none.
Our other core finding is the steady — and ultimately dramatic — decline in the volume of committee votes. In 2013, the committee took action on 35 items. By 2025, that number had fallen to just three. The trend is shown in the graph below.
We’ve reproduced all of the agendas below and color-coded them so readers can see where the rare action items occurred. The color coding also shows the category we assigned to each action item. Click on any color in the key to the right of the agendas to see a list of all items in that category.
Twenty-one of the 174 action items were decided in closed session. For those items, the public record shows that a decision was made, but not the discussion that led to it.
How to Use This Site
The agendas below reproduce the CalPERS Board Investment Committee record collected for this project. Highlighted items are the agenda items that were designated for committee action.
Click on any highlighted item to open its agenda materials. Where a public transcript is available, click the red [Transcript] link beside the item to read the verbatim record of the committee discussion in a pop-up window, opened to that exact point in the meeting.
The color-coded key on the right lists the categories we assigned to the action items. Click any category to see every item in that category across the full record, with links to the relevant materials and transcripts. You can also collapse the key with the − button to free up screen space.
Use the search bar to find items by date, agenda item number, category, or phrase. The search tool shows the number of matches — for example, “2 of 3” — and the ▲ / ▼ arrows let you move through them one at a time.
Closed-session portions of agendas are shown on a light gray background.