Tag: Sarah Min

What’s the Impact of Early Retirements on Plans?

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.ai-cio.com/in-focus/shop-talk/whats-the-impact-of-early-retirements-on-plans/

Excerpt:

Take the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), which in February reported that it had its second-highest year for retirements in 2020, behind the fallout from the Great Recession. The pension fund reported a steep 26% jump in the second half of 2020 from the same time a year before. 

When the pension fund for educators surveyed roughly 500 of these retirees, about 62% said they retired earlier than they planned. More than half said the challenges of teaching during the pandemic pushed them to seek an early out. Still, a CalSTRS spokesperson said this week that the fund does not expect the retirements to have a “material impact” on the funding levels.  

Broadly speaking, any damage from early retirements is going to be “fairly muted,” according to Kevin McLaughlin, head of liability risk management for North America at Insight Investment. 

Author(s): Sarah Min

Publication Date: 1 July 2021

Publication Site: ai-CIO

The New Kentucky Investment Chief Just Got a 41% Pay Boost

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.ai-cio.com/news/new-kentucky-investment-chief-just-got-41-pay-boost/

Excerpt:

The new investment chief at the Kentucky Public Pensions Authority (KPPA) has received a 41% boost to his base salary. The hike comes after the plan’s board members this week approved a motion to lift the pay ceiling for top investment officials at the retirement system. 

Board members are hoping the compensation changes will help the underfunded pension plan hold on to KPPA CIO Steven Herbert. He started in January at the $20 billion retirement system, just as it is undergoing a complete rebranding and overhaul of its operations. KPPA was formerly known as the Kentucky Retirement Systems. 

Starting this month, Herbert can earn $235,000 annually, not including incentive pay, up from $167,000 per year. Steve M. Willer, the deputy executive director of investments, who is effectively the DCIO, can earn $190,000 per year, up from $165,000 annually. 

Author(s): Sarah Min

Publication Date: 9 April 2021

Publication Site: ai-CIO

The GameStop Woes Keep Plaguing Melvin Capital

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.ai-cio.com/news/gamestop-woes-keep-plaguing-melvin-capital/

Excerpt:

Melvin Capital is facing a wave of lawsuits from plaintiffs who allege that the hedge fund tangled up in the GameStop debacle has conspired to restrict trading for retail investors, causing them to lose money. 

The investment firm founded by Gabriel Plotkin disclosed nine legal complaints in its most recent ADV filing, which social media investors on Reddit gleefully discussed at length this week. The complaints were first reported by Institutional Investor.

The suits accuse Melvin Capital and other market leaders of colluding to restrict retail trading in January, when a freeze on individual accounts trading shares of GameStop, AMC, and other so-called “meme” stocks had retail investors and regulators crying foul play. 

Author(s): Sarah Min

Publication Date: 24 March 2021

Publication Site: ai-CIO

Diversity Quotas ‘Absolutely’ Work, Ursula Burns Says

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.ai-cio.com/news/diversity-quotas-absolutely-work-ursula-burns-says/

Excerpt:

Change will not come naturally to corporate boards without diversity quotas, according to Ursula M. Burns, the former chairman and CEO of Xerox. She was the first Black female chief executive of a Fortune 500 company. 

“I was dead set against quotas, but now I think quotas are absolutely, positively acceptable,” Burns said in a keynote panel for the California Conference for Women. “They’re the punishment that you get when you don’t do the right thing by yourself.” 

She noted how a change in the Golden State’s laws spurred the naming of female directors, in a conversation with California first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who helped found gender equity nonprofit California Partners Project, directed the documentary film “Miss Representation,” and moderated the panel. Burns pointed out that public companies in California were quick to find women for their directorships when it was mandated by law in 2018, despite previously insisting that there is too little female talent in the pipeline. 

Author(s): Sarah Min

Publication Date: 5 March 2021

Publication Site: ai-CIO

New York City Comptroller: Ax Rule Forcing Private Equity to Pay Legal Bills

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.ai-cio.com/news/new-york-city-comptroller-ax-rule-forcing-private-equity-pay-legal-bills/

Excerpt:

Scott Stringer is worried. New York City pension funds are having a tough time enlisting private equity (PE) firms due to a requirement that PE outfits pay for litigation expenses out of their own pockets instead of shunting the cost onto investors.  

So, as the city official overseeing the funds, City Comptroller Stringer is urging fund trustees to scrap this rule, which would help the buyout firms if they run into trouble with regulators or other litigants, as first reported by the New York Post. The idea is to get more PE players managing city pension money.

The New York City Public Pension Funds, the collective of the city’s five pension funds, implemented the private equity rule, called the “GP Expenses Provision,” roughly five years ago after Carlyle Group was swept up in a collusion case and had to pay a $115 million settlement, the Post reported.

Author(s): Sarah Min

Publication Date: 26 February 2021

Publication Site: ai-CIO

Pension Relief Plan in COVID-19 Stimulus Bill That Passes House

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.ai-cio.com/news/pension-relief-plan-covid-19-stimulus-bill-passes-house/

Excerpt:

On Saturday, a measure to give troubled multiemployer pension plans assistance from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) passed the House of Representatives, as part of a larger $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package from President Joe Biden. 

The federal stimulus package, which includes $1,400 checks for many Americans and increased funding for vaccines, also holds the Emergency Pension Plan Relief Act of 2021 (EPPRA), an update to the Butch Lewis Act. It’s a bill that lawmakers expect will help stabilize the multiemployer pension plans that are in danger of insolvency. 

Of the more than 10 million multiemployer plan participants, about 1.3 million are in plans that will soon run out of money. 

Author(s): Sarah Min

Publication Date: 1 March 2021

Publication Site: ai-CIO

State Employee Retirements at CalPERS Jump 15% in 2020

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.ai-cio.com/news/state-employee-retirements-calpers-jump-15-2020/

Excerpt:

California state employee retirements jumped 15% last year, as employees dealing with pandemic-related stress chose to leave the workforce, a pension fund spokesperson with the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) confirmed. 

About 12,300 state workers in the state retirement system retired last year, up from roughly 10,700 the year prior, according to CalPERS data, which was first reported on by the Sacramento Bee. It’s a major spike from the prior two-year period, when state retirements fell 1.8% from 2018 to 2019. 

Overall, retirements in the entire CalPERS system—which includes state workers, as well as public agency employees and non-teaching school personnel—increased just 4% in 2020, data shows. The prior year, the number of retirements in the whole pension fund fell 1.4%. 

Author(s): Sarah Min

Publication Date: 23 February 2021

Publication Site: ai-CIO

Tufts University to End Direct Investments into Coal and Tar Sands

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.ai-cio.com/news/tufts-university-end-direct-investments-coal-tar-sands/

Excerpt:

Tufts University joins the growing number of colleges that have pledged to end direct investments into coal and tar sands companies. The decision comes after a review from an internal school sustainability committee. 

A list of 120 of the largest energy firms will be banned by the $1.9 billion endowment, the university said Wednesday. At the moment, the school has no direct investments into the excluded companies, though the list will be reviewed and updated every year.

Author(s): Sarah Min

Publication Date: 11 February 2021

Publication Site: ai-CIO

The Big Challenges Facing the New Kentucky Pension Plan CIO

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.ai-cio.com/in-focus/cio-spotlight/big-challenges-facing-new-kentucky-pension-plan-cio/?apos=1_art&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CIOAlert

Excerpt:

When Steven Herbert started at the Kentucky Retirement Systems (KRS) last week, after a monthslong talent search, he became the sixth investment chief in 13 years to take the helm at the struggling pension program. 

Kentucky Retirement Systems CIO Steven Herbert

The $18.3 billion state system has had a tough time holding on to its investment staff. Herbert will replace Rich Robben, the former CIO who departed last fall for a consulting position. But other allocators have decamped before him, including David Peden, now a consultant at Mercer subsidiary Pavilion; TJ Carlson, now CIO at Texas Municipal; Adam Tosh, now senior portfolio manager in Alaska’s Bristol Bay Native Corporation; and John Krimmel, now an NEPC consultant.  

Author: Sarah Min

Publication Date: 28 January 2021

Publication Site: ai-CIO