燃烧的Oregon Pension Trail

A movement is afoot to change the way the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System is managed. If pension officials get their wish, the Oregon Investment Council (OIC), the body that oversees a combined $80 billion in pension and other state trust fund assets, will become the Oregon Investment Corp., a quasigovernmental entity with greater control over the state’s assets.

“There have been increasing concerns among Treasury staff and OIC members that Oregon’s investment operations, which historically have generated strong returns and served Oregonians well for decades, are becoming insufficient and inadequate in a now global and increasingly complex investment arena,” OIC chairman Keith Larson wrote in a recent e-mail exchange with亚博赞助欧冠. The current fund management structure was put in place in the 1970s with about $1 billion in assets.

When Oregon Treasurer Ted Wheeler took the bold move early this year of submitting Senate Bill 120, formally named the Investment Modernization and Cost Reduction Act, to the senate finance and review committee of the Salem-based state legislature, he had the full support of Larson and the four other investment council members, as well as that of CIO John Skjervem.

在2011年9月9月，罗纳德施密斯的出发后，投资委员会开始审查其商业模式和治理结构。两个顾问评估和一个综合内部审计指出需要更大的组织独立性。在3月11日的参议院委员会的地址，英特尔资本的高管劳斯森，科技巨头英特尔公司的风险投资臂，提醒说，“正如顾问告诉我们，如果我们未能现代化，投资组合可能会面临重大风险加强它的管理。“

The new fund management structure would give a newly created investment corporation powers that the investment council currently lacks. For example, the staff of the corporation would report to a fully independent board rather than to just the treasurer. The board would take budgetary authority away from the legislature, be able to scrutinize the cost of the entire program and prioritize human capital and technology resources, Larson told the senate committee.

新的企业结构将使投资办公室更新风险管理和后台功能 - 越来越尖叫。“该司目前的评估和监测投资组合和运营风险的框架不再相对于国家投资活动的重大规模和不断增长的复杂性，”Cio Skjervem告诉IIin an e-mail, pointing to the importance of being nimble and flexible in the complex global financial markets.

The corporate structure would also make it easier to increase staff ranks and change their compensation, because such requests would no longer have to wend their way through the legislative process.

The Oregon pension system has not been immune to the financial crisis and market gyrations. Last month the pension board voted to reduce the system’s assumed rate of return by 25 basis points, to 7.75 percent, acknowledging the ongoing challenge of investing in a low-interest-rate environment. Still, Oregon’s pension fund returns have been above average. PERS’s ten-year annualized return for the year ended December 31, 2012, was 8.7 percent, compared with a 7.96 percent median return for pension systems with more than $5 billion in assets in Wilshire Associates’ Trust Universe Comparison Service. The state’s one-year return of 14.3 percent is almost a full point above the 13.43 percent TUCS median.

When the 2013 annual legislative session ended in early July, the bill that would create Oregon Investment Corp. had not reached a vote. That’s not unusual, say state officials, given that the legislation competed with upward of 35 other bills concerning the $61 billion state pension fund.

下次会议的SB 120将通过什么机会？“我们已经听说过目前建造的提案被认为是太复杂，”Cio Skjervem说。“因此，我们正在努力为决策者更好地了解提案细节以及这些重要结构变化的指导理由。”官员还在努力简化该法案。Skjervem认为拟议的投资模式将被采用，其他国家系统将遵循诉讼。

For his part, OIC chairman Larson, speaking at a recent board meeting, expressed his belief that the bill will likely be heard and voted on in the 2014 legislative session that starts early next year.

Though OIC officials are optimistic, they will face a challenge in pushing their agenda in 2014 given that the Oregon legislature meets for only 35 days in even-numbered years.