The Investment Decisionmaking Process In Two Georgia Public Employee Retirement Plans

The second in a series of seven case studies was performed of the Employees' Retirement System of Georgia and the Atlanta General Employees' Pension Plan. The Georgia plan is the second largest of five employee-administered state retirement plans with about 48,300 members and assets of about $355 million. The Atlanta plan is the largest of three plans for city employees with about 14,400 members and assets of $71 million. The Georgia plan is financed and managed by an independent board of trustees which has power to invest retirement assets within the conditions of State laws and accepted investment principles. Controls have been devised for insuring proper investment procedures. Disclosure statements will be developed and auditing is performed by outside accounts. In the Atlanta plan, a board of trustees is responsible for plan operations; it is administered by the city's Commissioner of Finance; and the city's investment officer manages its investments. Investment options are limited by law. Evaluation guidelines are being developed, and annual audits are performed by independent firms.

Information on the investment decisionmaking process of the New York State Employees' Retirement System and the Teachers' Retirement System of the City of New York was obtained from summary data and interviews with cognizant officials. The information obtained was not verified and the adequacy of procedures and practices followed by the plans was not evaluated. The New York State Employees' Retirement System is the largest of three State-administered retirement plans for employees of the State and local governments. This plan covers about 552,000 active members, compared with the 259,000 members covered by the two other plans. As of March 31, 1975, this plan had about $6.1 billion in assets, compared with $5.6 billion for the other plans. The State comptroller is responsible for the management and operations of the plan, including the investment of plan assets. He draws on a variety of staff resources and outside investment advisors to administer the plan and manage the investment program. The Teachers' Retirement System of the City of New York is the second largest of five retirement plans in the city. As of June 30, 1975, it had over 83,000 active members and assets totaling about $3 billion. The other four plans had about 257,000 active members and assets of about $5 billion. This plan is managed and controlled by a board of trustees.