Thursday, June 29, 6000
Tuesday, February 15, 4000
STRS Ohio Watchdogs: a public Facebook group you can join
Sunday, August 27, 3950
Have you joined the Ohio STRS Member Only Forum on Facebook?
Click image to enlarge
Monday, June 25, 3900
Monday, June 24, 3850
Wednesday, May 28, 3800
Friday, February 27, 3750
Sunday, April 11, 3700
Thursday, March 10, 3650
Friday, February 24, 3550
Monday, April 29, 3450
I know, it's weird.........
Monday, February 24, 3400
This is an abbreviated version of the original 'Handy links' post. Click here to view a more complete list. (Some of it is old.)
State legislators.......State of Ohio website
Tuesday, February 24, 3350
Dennis Leone's STRS Report to ORTA, March 2007
Tuesday, February 23, 3300
Thursday, December 05, 2024
Toledo Blade: STRS spin misleads; The STRS fund managers may beat other funds but they don’t beat the market.Misinformation and State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio management go together like bacon and eggs.
STRS spin misleads
The STRS fund managers may beat other funds but they don’t beat the market.
THE BLADE EDITORIAL BOARD
December 5, 2024
Misinformation and State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio management go together like bacon and eggs. Media interviews timed to the retirement of Acting Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer Lynn Hoover are the latest example. (“Ohio’s teachers’ pension system called stable,” Sunday.)
Ms. Hoover points to performance superior to more than 9 out of 10 similar pension funds measured over short term, medium term, or long term to support the claim that STRS is strong.
STRS offers its teachers options to either let STRS’ investment managers invest their funds, or simply invest the funds in index funds, which are easily monitored by anyone. The index funds routinely outperform STRS’ well-compensated fund managers.
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Head of Ohio's teacher pension fund to retire, describing fund as strong despite staff vacanciesThe STRS fund managers may beat other funds but they don’t beat the market.
STRS claims it pays only 36/100ths of 1 percent in fees, but scrutiny by a reform board member has revealed that the fund actually paid 84/100ths of 1 percent in fees to fund managers last year.
That’s $466 million more paid to Wall Street than the $256 million expense shown in STRS’ annual financial report, on Ms. Hoover’s watch.
Ms. Hoover is leading the effort to make school districts increase pension payments by $500 million more each year.
State taxpayers are already revolting against school levies. Increasing the cost of pensions will make it even harder to pass school levies.
STRS needs to use index funds to increase fund performance and thereby eliminate most of the $629 million in fees it paid to Wall Street. That would avert the need for a pension fund increase from taxpayers.
In that same article, Ms. Hoover characterized the help she and other STRS brass provided the Minnesota teachers pension fund when their investment reports were challenged as “par for the course and normal protocol.”
In our view, Ms. Hoover’s assistance to the Minnesota pension fund was a desperate attempt to head off scrutiny into that state board’s payments to its investment managers.
Ms. Hoover was concerned that the Minnesota pension board’s “reputation as a trusted government agency” — and by extension, the STRS board’s — was in question.
As The Blade Editorial Board revealed when breaking these details, the Minnesota pension’s reported results are impossible to believe. The State Board of Investment, responsible for all Minnesota state pensions, claims investment expenses of 6/100s of 1 percent on a portfolio mostly managed by Wall Street consultants.
Ms. Hoover knows from years of experience in Ohio how highly unlikely that official claim is and how vulnerable to scrutiny dubious expense claims make a public pension.
It was an insult to Ohio taxpayers for STRS’ leader, lawyer, and lobbyist to help Minnesota evade the investigation it so obviously warrants.
The damage done to trust in public pension confidence by STRS under Lynn Hoover wasn’t limited to Ohio.
Read this article online here.
Sunday, November 17, 2024
Video: Robin Rayfield's interview at the October 2024 Allen County Retired Teachers Association meeting
From John Curry
Click here for the video of Robin's interview, which is less than 10 minutes in length.
Dr. Robin Rayfield is executive director of the Ohio Retirement for Teachers Association.
Friday, November 08, 2024
Rudy Fichtenbaum runs for re-election to STRS Ohio Board
Who can sign Fichtenbaum's nomination petition?
https://www.orta.org/post/rudy-fichtenbaum-runs-for-re-election-to-strs-ohio-board
Thursday, November 07, 2024
Schedule for November 2024 STRS Board Meeting
From STRS
3:00 p.m. Disability Review Panel (Disability reviews will be conducted in Executive Session)
8:30 a.m. Audit Committee Meeting
Followed by Retirement Board Education & Planning Meeting
Followed by Governance Committee Meeting
Followed by Retirement Board Education & Planning Meeting resumes
Meeting virtually may register using the link below:
Final meeting materials will be available approximately 30 minutes before the meeting starts.
Friday, November 01, 2024
International Investor: Ohio Teachers’ Outgoing Executive Director Defends Fund’s Position After Months of Turmoil
Ohio Teachers’ Outgoing Executive Director Defends Fund’s Position After Months of Turmoil
James Comtois
October 31, 2024
After months of controversy, the Ohio State Teachers Retirement System could be turning a corner. At least, according to its outgoing executive director Lynn Hoover, who said that the “fund is going in the right direction.”
“Alternatives have returned more than a passive mix. You need qualified staff to support alternatives,” Nesbitt said. “You can’t index alternatives.”
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Toledo Blade: The STRS board has no more important mission than to implement policies that make it clear the fortunes of the staff and the beneficiaries are linked.
October 31, 2024
Editorial: Bonus for beneficiaries
Bonuses have a bad name with retirees of the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, but not when the benefits finally swing their way.
The STRS board approved a supplemental benefit that will add $1,720 to the average retired teacher’s pension for 2024. (“Retired Ohio teachers to get 1-time benefit,” Oct. 18.)
The cost to the pension system is $306 million. That leaves $572 million available for the STRS board to implement a permanent cost-of-living adjustment.
The STRS board will make that decision next spring.
There has been no bigger disconnect between STRS retirees and STRS staff than the lack of COLAs for beneficiaries while the pension investment staff routinely collects annual bonuses for performance measured against benchmarks below market returns.
STRS is quick to remind retirees the extra income they’ll receive this year is not guaranteed to last. The same conditions extend to the staff bonuses that often add six-figure sums to the pay of STRS investment staffers.
It’s unlikely that the STRS board will bring back the annual COLA when they are in the midst of a years-long effort to convince the General Assembly to raise the taxpayer contribution to the pension by 28.5 percent.
Paying a permanent COLA doesn’t fit the narrative of a fund in need of a large bailout from taxpayers. But paying staff lavish bonuses, even in a year the fund lost $5 billion, is just as politically foolish.
The STRS board should formally link supplemental payments to retirees with bonuses for the investment staff. In a year without an income boost for pension beneficiaries, there can be no bonus paid to investment staff, a policy that would calm the waters at STRS.
Angry teachers have been rightfully convinced the STRS staff actively works against their interests for personal benefit. If the board connects bonuses to supplemental benefits the interests of staff and retirees will harmonize.
The distrust of STRS staff by STRS retirees and the reform board members they have elected will surely be a factor in the nationwide search for a new executive director and chief investment officer.
The STRS board has no more important mission than to implement policies that make it clear the fortunes of the staff and the beneficiaries are linked.
Read the article online here.
Monday, October 28, 2024
Columbus Disparch: Is there a conspiracy at the state teachers' pension fund? Former board member thinks so
Is there a conspiracy at the state teachers' pension fund? Former board member thinks so
Columbus Dispatch
October 28, 2024
By Laura Bischoff
A former teachers' pension board member is suing two other former board members, alleging they are part of a "civil conspiracy" that stymied his quest to investigate the retirement system's failings.
It's the latest twist in a long-running drama over who controls the 11-member board for the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio.
Former board member Wade Steen filed a lawsuit in Franklin County Common Pleas Court last week against Brent Bishop and Brian Perera. Gov. Mike DeWine reappointed Steen as an investment expert in November 2020. But in May 2023, he removed Steen and appointed Bishop. When Bishop resigned, DeWine put Perera on the board.
Steen waged a successful legal fight to return to the board in April 2024 but his term expired in September.
Steen paints himself as an investigator, seeking answers as to why STRS's investment returns fell short and the system couldn't pay out consistent cost of living adjustments for retired teachers.
His removal from the board came in the midst of his investigation and on the cusp of Steen gaining a majority of votes on the board, according to his new lawsuit
In his new lawsuit, Steen alleges that Perera, Bishop, STRS staff, the governor's office and the attorney general's office conspired against him.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost filed a lawsuit against Steen and STRS Board Chairman Rudy Fichtenbaum, alleging the two violated their fiduciary responsibility to the pension fund.
The STRS board oversees roughly $95 billion invested on behalf of 500,000 current and former teachers. It is one of five public pension systems in Ohio.
In his lawsuit against Bishop and Perera, Steen wants more than $50,000 for emotional distress, reputation damage, foregone expense reimbursements and attorney fees.
An outside lobbying group covered $114,000 in legal fees for Steen and Fichtenbaum. The payments could conflict with state ethics laws.
The STRS board has faced infighting and turmoil over the past few years. Retirees are angry over the elimination of cost-of-living allowances, a perceived lack of transparency and the payment of bonuses to pension investment staff despite investment losses.
The turmoil contributed to a $1.65 million exit package for former STRS director Bill Neville, a decision to retire by interim director Lynn Hoover and a decision to retire by chief investment officer Matt Worley.
Read this story online here.
Sunday, October 27, 2024
Lima News/Newsbreak: STRS plans one-time inflation payouts to retirees
Lima News
October 25, 2024
By Mackenzi Klemann,3 days ago
STRS plans one-time inflation payouts to retirees
LIMA — The State Teachers Retirement System will distribute one-time supplemental benefits to retirees in December as inflation relief, the pension fund’s acting executive director said during a town hall in Lima on Wednesday.
The STRS board approved the one-time supplemental payments during its October meeting to assist retirees with “inflation and the economic realities that are affecting many of us,” said Lynn Hoover, acting executive director and chief financial officer.
The $94 billion pension fund, whose 545,000 members include 156,000 retirees and 174,000 teachers currently paying into the system, is in turmoil amid resignations and a lawsuit from Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.
Hoover visited the Lima Public Library on Wednesday to reassure retirees and teachers their pensions are “safe and secure.”
“Your monthly pension will hit your account every month,” she said. “Our plan is better off than we’ve been in some time.”
Retirees who started receiving benefits from the STRS in or prior to January should receive a one-time supplemental payment by mid-December.
Benefits will be calculated at an estimated rate of $40 per year of service and each full year of retirement, Hoover said.
STRS will notify eligible retirees next month.
Retirees have not received a cost-of-living adjustment since the STRS board approved a 1% adjustment in May 2023. The board approved a 3% cost-of-living adjustment and lowered the retirement age in March 2022.
Members may now collect reduced benefits after 29 years of service and full benefits after 34 years.
The STRS board will consider another cost-of-living raise next spring, Hoover said when asked if the one-time inflation payments will replace a cost-of-living adjustment this year.
Hoover said the supplemental benefits have a shorter waiting period than cost-of-living adjustments, and payouts are greater for retirees who have been out of the workforce the longest.
Read this article online here.