Kentucky Teachers Retirement System (KTRS) has appointed Deputy CIO Tom Siderewicz to the top job as Paul Yancey retires from the pension next month.
A meeting of the pension trustee board this week approved a resolution honoring Yancey’s career at the system, which is Kentucky’s largest financial institution, according to reports in local news service The Lane Report.
Yancey began at the system in 1986 as an analyst and worked his way to the top, eventually taking the CIO role from Stuart Reagan in 2004.
During his time at the system, KTRS’ assets have grown from around $5 billion to $18.5 billion, as of June 30. Its annualized return over the past 20 years, as of the end of December, was 8.2%, according to KTRS’ latest update.
At the end of June 2014, KTRS was 53% funded, according to a report from its consultants. In August, the state governor unveiled a working group project to study how to improve this funding level and enable the system to pay out pensions for all enrolled members.
“Since 2008, given finite revenue and challenging budgets, the state has been unable to pay the full annual required contribution for teachers’ pensions,” said an announcement on the KTRS website. “Current retirees are being paid by liquidating investments that ideally would be held onto to grow and pay future retirees. In fact, more than $1 of every $3 paid in pension benefits to retired teachers comes from selling the fund’s assets—something that wasn’t necessary less than a decade ago.”
KTRS’ actuary projects that, without required contributions, the retirement fund would exhaust all assets by 2036. KTRS’ sister pension, the Kentucky Retirement System, was noted in a report by Loop Capital Markets this week as being one of the country’s furthest into the red, standing at 45% funded.
Siderewicz will assume the role on October 1, as Yancey takes his retirement.