University of California Retirement Savings Plan (UCRSP)

University of California Retirement Savings Plan (UCRSP)

The University of California Retirement Savings Plan (UCRSP) operates the 403(b), 457(b), and DC plans for UC system employees, a structure governed by The Regents of the University of California. Jagdeep Singh Bachher, who joined UC Investments as CIO in 2014, leads the office that constructs and monitors the plan's core menu of UC Pathway target date funds, the UC Savings Fund, and the UC Growth Company Fund. The plan's design ties it tightly to the broader UC Investments apparatus, which manages endowment and pension capital in parallel. UCRSP participants access a deliberately compact lineup built around UC-branded funds. The UC Pathway Funds serve as the qualified default investment alternative, mixing global equities, bonds, and real assets through a glide path that shifts toward fixed income as a participant approaches retirement. The UC Growth Company Fund concentrates on domestic large-cap growth equities; the UC Bond Fund anchors the fixed-income sleeve. Beyond the proprietary funds, the plan taps UC Investments' external manager relationships — including a co-investment channel with Blackstone — to offer exposure to private real estate through the UC Real Estate Fund. Asset classes reach across public equity, investment-grade credit, inflation-linked bonds, and private real assets. The plan's scale creates pricing advantages but disclosure is thin. Total assets under management are not publicly broken out for UCRSP separately from the broader $180-plus billion UC Investments complex (per public record). The Regents act as plan trustee, and UC Investments staff handle manager selection, asset allocation, and due diligence from the Oakland office. The plan participates in a proposed commercial entity with the Big Ten Conference, a vehicle designed to monetize media and sponsorship rights, signaling UC's willingness to embed non-traditional revenue interests inside its investment perimeter. UCRSP's structural distinction is its integration with a top-decile public investment office that also runs the university's endowment and pension pools. Most university DC plans buy off-the-shelf recordkeeping and off-the-shelf target date funds; UCRSP instead uses UC Investments' internal portfolio construction and manager-access capabilities, giving 403(b) participants indirect exposure to the same private-market relationships the endowment uses — a governance architecture few public university DC plans replicate.