VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET AL

The Virginia Retirement Systems is the state benefits organization for the State of Virginia. The system was established through two previous predecessors, the Retired Teachers’ Fund and Virginia Retirement System. The original Retired Teachers’ Fund was established in 1908 and, as its name suggested, only provided benefits for public school teachers. The Virginia Retirement System replaced the Retired Teachers’ Fund in 1942, extending the benefits of the system to teachers, school administration employees and most state employees. The Commonwealth of Virginia would then repeal the existing Virginia retirement system in 1952 in order to be able to fulfill the requirement of its employees not being covered by an existing system to allow its public employees to join Social Security. In the same year, the Virginia Supplement Retirement System would be created as a supplement to Social Security. In 1986, the relationship between retirement and Social Security benefits were drastically restricted, prompting the state of Virginia to change the system back to its original Virginia Retirement Systems name in 1990 after it lost its role as a supplemental system. The current system acts as a “a retirement system for State employees and employees of participating political subdivisions” with its held funds deemed “separate and independent trust funds from all other funds of the Commonwealth [of Virginia].” The Virginia Retirement Systems currently has 820 participating employers including state agencies, public colleges and universities, local public school divisions and various political subdivisions including counties, cities, towns, special authorities and commissions. The system has over a third of a million in active members and provides various benefits to over 160,000 retirees and beneficiaries. The system conducts its research in house and invests in growth stocks, utilizing a fundamental analysis to make its investment decisions. Virginia Retirement Systems invests most heavily in the services and financial sectors, each making up approximately a fifth of its total asset allocations.