Texas TRS awards bonuses to investment staff

The Teacher Retirement System of Texas Board of Trustees yesterday approved performance incentive payments totaling $9.7 million for 108 employees. TRS investment staff earn bonuses based on performance against target benchmarks related to their area of work. Yesterday's payments cover pension fund investment performance in the first half of 2010, as well as deferred awards from 2008 and 2009. (Employees may accrue bonuses in years when the total fund loses value but bonuses are only paid out in years with overall gains.)

The TRS press release 'TRS earns 12.6% annual return rate, ranks first among peer pension funds nationally' highlights the fund's impressive performance over the last year.

Austin American Statesman writer Kate Alexander reports in today's edition:

"Texas' teacher pension fund awarded $9.7 million in performance bonuses to its investment team on Thursday after achieving a 12.6 percent one-year return for the fund.

"The $104 billion Teacher Retirement System of Texas turned in the best one-year performance among the nation's largest public pension funds as of Sept. 30, according to an independent comparison of trust funds."

Read the rest at '$9.7 million investment bonuses awarded by Teacher Retirement System'.

The Associated Press offers much the same at 'Pension fund bonuses upset some retired teachers' and the Austin Business Journal at 'Teacher Retirement System of Texas investors given $9.7M bonuses'.

Paul Burka opines at 'The TRS Bonuses'.

Chicago Trib on city pensions

"Politicians helped bring Chicago's public pension funds to the brink of insolvency: Inadequate contributions, underperforming investments have also jeopardized the retirement of tens of thousands of city workers and put taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars"

The Chicago Tribune reports that political "exploitation" has brought the city's public pension funds to "the brink of insolvency."

Read the article