Louisiana State Employees Retirement System

The Louisiana State Employees Retirement System is a public trust fund based out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The organization was originally established in 1946 and is currently headed by board chair Judge William Kleinpeter, who believes that “the most important aspect of the LASERS mission is to provide a sound retirement plan for our members.” Louisiana State Employees Retirement System is composed out of 13 members, nine of whom are elected by membership which is further specified into 6 being elected by active members and the remaining 3 being elected by retirees. The final 4 seats on the board are occupied by the Louisiana State Treasurer, the Chair of the Senate Committee on Retirement, the Chair of the House Committee on Retirement, and the Commissioner of the Division of Administration. The agency currently pays out approximately $1.2 billion annually in total benefits and has over 40,000 employees and over 47,000 retirees with approximately 93% of its retirees living in Louisiana. Funding for Louisiana State Employees Retirement System comes from three main sources: earnings to investments that the agency manages, employee contributions to the agency, and employer contributions to the agency. The market value, as of 2015, of the agency’s assets is $11.4 billion and the agency had a fiscal year market return of 1.7%. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System manages approximately one third of its investments internally, allocating its assets across a variety of classes. The company allocates its assets in the domestic equity, international equity, fixed income, alternative assets, and private equity classes with the highest allocations being in the Large Cap Index Fund S&P 500 and International Large Cap Core – MSCI, each of which makes up over $1.2 billion of its total assets. Both of these highest asset allocations are managed internally by the Louisiana State Employees Retirement System.