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Board approves rebalancing of U.S. equity allocation; Vanguard Russell 1000 replacing total market fund
Summary
The St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office Retirement Plan board approved a rebalancing that moves $38.5 million into a Vanguard Russell 1000 index fund, fully liquidates the Vanguard Total Stock Market holding and William Blair small‑cap allocation, and adds a Vanguard small‑cap value index allocation; the vote was unanimous.
The St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office Retirement Plan board voted on June 26, 2025, to implement a multi-part rebalancing of its U.S. equity sleeve designed to reduce small‑cap exposure and increase mid‑cap weighting.
The board approved a motion to liquidate the Vanguard Total Stock Market index fund and invest $38.5 million in the Vanguard Russell 1000 index fund. The rebalancing package also moves roughly $8.5 million into the Vanguard Equity Income fund (previously discussed in April), fully liquidates the Vanguard Value Index fund, directs $200,000 to Virtus Cain & Anderson, and provides $1.5 million to the new small‑cap value manager (presented as the Vanguard small‑cap value index option). The plan will fund the moves in part from Allspring Government money-market holdings and available cash.
David Weiskopf, the county administrator who chaired the meeting, and staff described the swap as a way to decrease the plan's small‑cap exposure — the board had been overweight small caps relative to the policy benchmark — and to modestly increase mid‑cap exposure without materially changing overall U.S. equity exposure. Marquette Associates had presented the valuation and historic risk-return arguments earlier in the session.
Vanetta Van Cleave read the motion to implement the rebalancing, which listed the specific dollar amounts and fund movements. After a second, the board voted in favor and the motion carried.
Key elements of the approved rebalancing: the replacement of a broad total‑market index with a Russell 1000 fund (which excludes the roughly 2,000 smallest U.S. companies), addition of Vanguard Equity Income to increase large‑value exposure, full liquidation of the William Blair small‑cap mandate and replacement with a Vanguard small‑cap value index solution, and modest cash transfers into fixed‑income mandates to keep cash within policy limits.
Board members discussed trade-offs among active and passive managers, fees and the differing small‑cap value benchmarks (Russell 2000 value vs. CRSP-based small‑value index). Several trustees expressed a preference for the CRSP-based Vanguard option because its methodology produced more mid‑cap exposure and lower fees. The board directed staff to implement the approved trades and to report execution details at the next meeting.
