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David Veal to Join Texas Employees Pension as CIO

He leaves the Austin, Texas, city pension fund after five years to replace outgoing CIO Tom Tull.
By Michael Katz


The $34 billion Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS) has named David Veal as its next CIO to replace Tom Tull, who last year announced plans to retire this summer after nearly 12 years at the pension fund.  

David Veal

Veal returns to Texas ERS from the City of Austin Employees’ Retirement System (COAERS), where he has been CIO for more than five years. He worked for Texas ERS from 2009 to 2012 as an equity analyst/sector strategist and a portfolio manager/market strategist.

“David’s impressive investment experience, coupled with his track record as an effective leader and skilled communicator, make him the perfect person to take the helm for the ERS investment team,” Texas ERS Executive Director Porter Wilson said in a statement.

Prior to COAERS, Veal had a brief stint as CIO and managing director of EF Capital Management, and before that was at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas for close to three years, where he held the roles of director of strategic partnerships and research and chief of staff to the CIO. A former supply officer with the US Navy, Veal started his financial career with Morgan Stanley, where he worked for close to 10 years as an equity research associate and then a senior research analyst.

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Veal, who begins in August, will manage a team of 78 staff members, including a dedicated risk management team. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Auburn University and an Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan.

“I want to thank David Veal for his incredible leadership and management of the COAERS investment program and service to the members of our system,” COAERS Executive Director Christopher Hanson said in a statement. “His thoughtful and effective guidance helped lay a lasting foundation during his tenure here, which I have no doubt will continue into the future. We wish him all the best in this next chapter.”

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Home > News > Pensions > New Jersey Ups Pension Contribution 44% Due to Tax Receipt Surge, US Aid
Pensions

New Jersey Ups Pension Contribution 44% Due to Tax Receipt Surge, US Aid

The Garden State’s program has been one of the nation’s most underfunded.
By Larry Light


At last, some good news for New Jersey’s long-beleaguered public pension program: Climbing tax receipts enabled the state to make a large contribution to its defined benefit (DB) retirement system.

The New Jersey budget for fiscal year 2022, which the state legislature just passed, calls for a $6.9 billion pension payment, up about 44% over the previous year. State lawmakers increased the amount that Governor Phil Murphy proposed thanks to the surge in tax collections, plus federal stimulus money. The state has long had one of the nation’s worst pension shortfalls.

This marks the state’s first full public pension payment in 25 years (meaning the amount actuaries calculate the state must pay to meet its obligations). The record budget of which this is a piece, worth $46.4 billion, represents a 15% spending boost from the current fiscal year. The plan for the new fiscal year (starting July 1) also includes tax rebate checks for 760,000 households.

The Democrat-led Senate passed the proposal 25-15 along party lines, and the Assembly, which the Dems also control, voted 49-26 in favor. Murphy, a Democrat, is expected to sign it into law. Republicans, who had no role in drafting the budget, criticized the fiscal blueprint for expanding spending that the state can’t sustain going forward.

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New Jersey’s financial situation benefits from a $10 billion windfall, thanks to swelling sales and income tax collections, amid pandemic consumer purchases. Federal stimulus checks, while not taxable themselves, helped propel the retail purchasing boom. In addition, the state coffers benefited from more than $6 billion from Washington’s aid payments.

The state also enjoyed a strong investment return recently. After plummeting at the pandemic’s onset last year, the investment performance improved significantly and helped better the pension funding picture. Returns were running above 22%, according to preliminary figures for the current fiscal year from the New Jersey Division of Investment. They easily outpaced the system’s long-term assumptions.

Democrats portrayed the new budget as a signal that the state is recovering strongly from the coronavirus outbreak. “This budget represents an important statement to all New Jersey residents: We are primed and ready to rebound from the pandemic,” Senate President Steve Sweeney said.

For the fiscal year ending June 2020, the seven pension funds that make up the New Jersey pension system had assets to cover just 58% of what they owe to active and retired state and local government workers.

The difference between plan assets, $103.5 billion, and liabilities, $178.4 billion, was $74.9 billion at the beginning of this fiscal year. That represents some $2.9 billion, or 4%, more than the shortfall the year before.

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