Is CalPERS a Sovereign Wealth Fund?

The brief’s key findings are:

• Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) – government-sponsored pools of financial assets – are drawing increasing scrutiny by regulators.

• However, the definition of a SWF is widely debated.

• Perhaps SWFs are best defined as funds that invest in the government’s interests and have no specific outside liabilities.

• Thus, public pension funds such as CalPERS, which are largely independent and have fiduciary responsibilities to public workers, are not SWFs.