New York State Common Retirement Fund

The New York State Common Retirement Fund is a privately owned pension fund that was founded in 1983. It is currently the third largest pension fund in the United States with over $175 billion in audited net assets held. The fund has over one million members, retirees, and beneficiaries with over 3000 government employers. In 2014, almost $10 billion was paid out in benefits to retirees. The majority of funds are invested in domestic equities, making up over a third of its total funds. The rest are split into core fixed income, which makes up almost a quarter of total investments, non-U.S. equities, private equity, and real estate, among others, in order of decreasing fund allocation. The New York State Common Retirement Fund, also known as the New York State and Local Retirement System (NYSLRS), utilizes two different systems, although they are controlled and managed by the same staff members: the Employees’ Retirement System (ERS) and the Police and Fire Retirement System (PFRS). The former provides services and disability retirement benefits (including death benefits) to participating employees in public non-teaching positions exclusively in New York City. The latter provides the same services and benefits to police officers and firefighters under public employers in New York City. The ERS is the larger of the two systems with over 600 thousand members while the PFRS is the smaller of the two and has roughly over a third of a hundred thousand members. The rest of the members are made out of pensioners and beneficiaries. The administrative head of the fund is the New York State Comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli, who acts as the sole trustee of the Common Retirement fund, overseeing 346 benefit programs offered by the NYSLRS. Since taking officer, DiNapoli has made “high investment returns a priority and established greater transparency and accountability.”