SPRINGFIELD – Andrew J. Hirshman of Oak Park and Cinda J. Klickna of Rochester have been elected by active members of Teachers’ Retirement System to the retirement fund’s Board of Trustees, according to preliminary results of the 2015 Trustee election announced today.
SPRINGFIELD, IL – Teachers’ Retirement System today hired Axiom International Investors to administer emerging market investments within the System’s $9.4 billion International Equity portfolio.
Axiom, based in Greenwich, Connecticut, was given a mandate to oversee approximately $282 million in TRS assets, or 3 percent of the overall International Equity portfolio. The TRS Board of Trustees launched an international search for a new money manager to administer this mandate in December of 2014.
SPRINGFIELD, IL – The trustees of Teachers’ Retirement System today approved the issuance of a formal “request for proposals” seeking consulting services for potential co-investment opportunities within the System’s $4.9 billion Private Equity portfolio.
SPRINGFIELD, IL – Preliminary estimates indicate that Teachers’ Retirement System investments generated a positive 4.1 percent rate of return, gross of fees, during fiscal year 2015.
TRS ended FY 2015 on June 30 with $45.8 billion in assets, which places the System among the top 40 largest pension funds in the United States.
SPRINGFIELD, IL – Teachers’ Retirement System investments generated a positive 4.6 percent rate of return, gross of fees, during fiscal year 2015 – a return that matched the System’s custom investment benchmark for FY 2015.
TRS ended FY 2015 on June 30 with $46 billion in assets, which places the System among the top 23 largest public pension funds in the United States. Net of fees, the TRS return for FY 2015 was 4.0 percent.
The 30-year investment return for TRS is 9.1 percent, net of fees, which exceeds the System’s long-term investment goal of 7.5 percent.
SPRINGFIELD, IL -- All Teachers’ Retirement System pensions and benefits will be paid in November on time and for the foreseeable future, despite an announcement today that cash flow constraints will delay the payment of state government’s November contribution to TRS.
“All TRS pensions and benefits are funded exclusively from the TRS trust fund and not from the state budget,” said TRS Executive Director Dick Ingram. “TRS currently has $46 billion in the trust fund to pay all pensions and benefits and monthly benefit payments total approximately $460 million.”
SPRINGFIELD, IL – While the funded status of Teachers’ Retirement System improved slightly during fiscal year 2015 to 42 percent – up from 40.6 percent a year earlier – TRS still faces serious long-term financial problems caused by a long-standing unfunded liability.
The funded ratio is calculated according to state law, which requires TRS to average, or “smooth,” its investment gains and losses over a rolling five-year period; a common actuarial practice.
SPRINGFIELD, IL – The Teachers’ Retirement System Board of Trustees gave final approval to a state government contribution of $3.986 billion for fiscal year 2017, a 6.5 percent increase over the current budget year’s state contribution.
The $3.9 billion contribution for FY 2017 is based on calculations dictated in state law and falls well below the amount of money actuaries estimate state government should be paying TRS based on standard actuarial practices.
SPRINGFIELD, IL – The Teachers’ Retirement System Board of Trustees has approved the “graduation” of Channing Capital Management, of Chicago, from the System’s Emerging Manager Program to assume a role in managing a greater portion of the TRS Domestic Equity investment portfolio.
TRS first invested with Channing in 2011 with a $25 million commitment from the Emerging Manager Program. That commitment was increased to $100 million 2014. With its graduation, Channing will become responsible for successfully investing approximately $240 million in TRS assets.
SPRINGFIELD, IL – Decades of state government underfunding and weakening investment returns led the Teachers’ Retirement System Board of Trustees to give preliminary approval to a state government contribution for fiscal year 2018 of $4.56 billion – a 14.5 percent increase over the state contribution for the current fiscal year.