St. Mary’s County trustees approve active manager shifts for OPEB, consolidate fixed‑income and international holdings

The St. Mary’s County Library Board of Trustees on Dec. 16 approved a set of changes to investments held for its OPEB (other post‑employment benefits) portfolio, moving several passive allocations into active managers and consolidating small, fixed‑income and international holdings.

Trustees voted to select Fuller & Thaler as the small‑cap equity manager for the OPEB allocation, to consolidate several fixed‑income mandates into MetWest, and to fold the Schwab international and emerging‑market ETFs into the MFS International fund. Board President Jim Hanley moved each recommendation after discussion; the motions carried.

The decisions follow a presentation by Dave Saunders of Asset Strategies, who reviewed manager options and performance data pulled from the Callan database. Saunders told trustees the board had previously asked for additional candidates to consider beyond passive allocation, and he summarized differences in holdings, expense ratios and assets under management for each finalist. “The minimum purchase is one item of particular interest,” Saunders said while walking trustees through a small‑cap research packet that compared Palisades, Davenport and Fuller & Thaler. Saunders said the small‑cap allocation under consideration was about $140,000 as of…