The California Public Employees' Retirement System, the largest U.S. pension, said it doesn't have plans to change its investments with Pimco, according to an e-mailed statement today.

"Calpers has respect for both Bill Gross and Pimco investment professionals," the pension system said. Calpers, which has about 1.5 percent, or $1 billion, of its fixed-income assets in a Pimco international bond fund.

Some Exited

Some wealth managers had been exiting Pimco this year amid confusion over its leadership.

"We're almost completely out of Pimco," said Kathy Lintz, CEO of Matter Family Office in St. Louis. "We moved swiftly to get out, sensing the team was falling apart."

Lintz said her firm, which manages about $2.7 billion for wealthy families, started moving money from Pimco funds after the departure of El-Erian, and Chris Dialynas, manager of Pimco's Unconstrained Fund, went on sabbatical in the past year. Matter Family Office had about $100 million in Pimco investments, she said.

Retirement Plans

Pimco funds that have investments from employer-sponsored retirement plans may stave off some redemptions in the short term because it takes employers months to change choices for workers, said David Halseth, principal at Denver-based Strategies LLC, which advises companies on their 401(k) investment options.

"Bond fund competitors will pounce on this and claim the sky is falling at Pimco," Halseth said. "We have had multiple firms try to get us to make changes ever since the issue with Mohamed El-Erian came to light."

The Pimco Total Return Fund, which has $222 billion in assets that were managed by Gross, is the largest fund held by 401(k)-type plans, according to San Diego-based BrightScope Inc., which rates retirement plans.

Pimco ended up on the watch list for many investment consultants after El-Erian left, said Henry Yoshida, who advises on about $1.6 billion of 401(k)-type assets. Given Gross's reputation and track record, many were willing to give the firm time to regroup, he said.

Too Early

"The news today changes all of that," said Yoshida, who is based in Austin, Texas. "Our group and many others will begin making recommendations to map assets from Pimco to another fixed income fund."

Jon Grabel, chief investment officer of the Public Employees Retirement Association of New Mexico, said it's too early to make a decision about moving assets. Pimco manages about $725 million for the association in a separate account, Grabel said.

"One person may get the headlines, but one person doesn't manage trillions of dollars," he said.

The Florida State Board of Administration, which manages $147 billion in its Florida Retirement System Pension Plan, has been monitoring Pimco since El-Erian left. The fund has $1.9 billion invested in Pimco and nothing in Janus, said Dennis MacKee, a spokesman for the pension.

Pimco is on the system's watch list, which isn't a precursor to redemption, MacKee said. It means the board is looking closely at the funds' performance and and operations and will meet with consultants and investment staff to decide what to do, he said.

Watch List

New York City's five pension funds are evaluating the situation at Pimco, the New York City Office of the Comptroller said in an e-mailed statement. Total assets of the funds for firefighters, police officers, teachers, school administrators and civil servants is about $160.5 billion.

The $30.2 billion Indiana Public Retirement System said Pimco remains on its watch list and it's monitoring developments, Jennifer Dunlap, a spokeswoman for the pension fund, said in an e-mailed statement. The retirement plan had put Pimco on its list in January.

Analysts at Bernstein said in its report today that Gross's departure will add to the uncertainty about Pimco's fund flows. They expect a "good deal" of Pimco clients to follow the bond manager to Janus. A drop in assets of 10 percent at Pimco might have a minor, or 2 percent, impact on the fair value of its parent company, the German insurer Allianz SE, the report's writers said. A 30 percent outflow in assets might reduce the stock an estimated 13 percent.

"Our options are to fold, hold or double down, I guess," said Rosen of Angeles, a consultant that helps oversee $45 billion in assets. "You can eliminate one of those pretty quickly," he said, referring to the option of adding more money to Pimco.

–With assistance from Kelly Bit, Saijel Kishan, Katherine Burton, David Carey and Laura Marcinek in New York.