Stephen Gilmore, chief investment officer of CalPERS, used a cooking analogy to describe the differences between the Total Portfolio Approach (TPA) that he hopes the pension fund’s board will introduce to manage the $533.4 billion portfolio and the strategic asset allocation (SAA) it currently relies on. Under TPA, CalPERS’ board would set broad goals for managing the entire fund and give staff the task of implementing the strategy with one reference portfolio-type benchmark (under the current SAA, CalPERS has 11 different benchmarks) as well as a risk budget. CalPERS board would set its risk appetite by selecting a passive reference portfolio of stocks and bonds with active risk limits.