The Board approved the minutes of the June 20, 2024 regular board meeting and the August 14, 2024 special board meeting. These minutes, as well as those from prior meetings, can be found on MPERS’ website. Minutes from the current meeting will be posted after they are adopted at the Board’s next regular meeting.

The Board held a special meeting on August 14, 2024, to address the resignation of Trooper Matt Morice from the Board. At this meeting, the Board authorized a special election to fill Trooper Morice’s seat. Master Sergeant Wallace Ahrens was the only candidate who came forward. The Board accepted Master Sergeant Ahrens’ nomination and declared him the successful candidate. Master Sergeant Ahrens’ term begins immediately and ends on June 30, 2026.

The resignation of Trooper Matt Morice left the Board Vice Chair seat vacant. Mr. Todd Tyler was nominated and affirmed as Vice Chair.

Representatives from MPERS’ actuary, GRS, presented the annual actuarial valuation. The annual actuarial valuation is designed to measure the overall financial condition of the retirement system. During Fiscal Year 2025, MPERS’ funded status increased from 69.0% to 70.6%. This is the highest funded status in MPERS’ history. The funded status represents the level of assets available to pay the benefits that our members have earned.

An achievement from last year continues to bring good news this year: the retiree unfunded liability continues to be fully funded. The retiree liabilities represent the benefits earned by those members already receiving benefits from MPERS. MPERS’ funded status continues to show positive progress. 

The annual valuation also provides the basis for determining employer contribution rates for the next fiscal year, which must be certified by the Board to the employers (MoDOT and MSHP) by October 1. As approved by the Board for Fiscal Year 2026, the contribution rate will be 37.013% of payroll for the non-uniformed group (MoDOT and the non-uniformed members of the Highway Patrol) and 58.005% for the uniformed group. The contribution rate is comprised of the factors noted below. 

It was another strong year for MPERS’ investment portfolio. Fiscal Year 2024 performance came in at 13.29%, which outperformed the policy benchmark (12.29%), median public fund (11.4%), and most importantly, the actuarial assumption (6.5%). Simpler was better was the theme again for the past year, as global equities were up another 19% for the year. Traditional fixed income was up 2.7% for the year, so a traditional 60/40 mix of stocks and bonds generated a 12.7% return. MPERS’ portfolio typically trails peers and traditional 60/40 portfolios in this environment, so we are very pleased with the overall results. The strong returns should also provide more downward pressure on employer contribution rates.  

MPERS’ long-term returns continue to look strong relative to any metric. MPERS’ 3-, 5-, and 10-year returns all rank in the top 1% of the peer universe, while the 20-year return ranks in the top 2%.  

Fiscal Year 2025 is also off to a good start. Stocks and bonds have rallied further in recent months in hopes that the Federal Reserve will start to reduce interest rates and successfully navigate a “soft landing” for the economy. Overall, the portfolio is up an estimated 2.5% to start the year (July 1st – September 4th).  

Mr. Simon updated the board on the projected timeline of the new building.

• Thursday, November 21, 2024