The Los Angeles County Employees’ Retirement Association recently adopted a new private equity program structure, and the $42 billion pension fund is looking to put its capital to work in the alternative asset class.

Specifically, LACERA is currently looking for a separate-account private equity fund-of-funds manager to invest a $150 million mandate over three years in emerging managers on a discretionary basis. The system is looking for exposure to small- to mid-sized corporate finance funds and emerging managers (buyout funds with capital commitments between $100 million and $750 million and venture funds between $100 million and $300 million) that are difficult to access.

The minimum requirements for the request for proposals include a five-year track record of committing capital to emerging managers, commitments of at least $200 million to emerging managers within the past 12 months, five institutional clients, with a minimum of one public pension fund with a plan size of at least $10 billion, and at least $1 billion of private equity assets under management as a fiduciary.

The deadline for the request for proposals, which can be accessed on LACERA’s Web site [1], is 3:00 p.m., Pacific time, on Jan. 25.