The brief’s key findings are:
- Oversight of state and local pension funds is vitally important to government officials, plan participants, and taxpayers.
- The effectiveness of pension boards depends on their structure, composition, size, and member tenure.
- Based on best practices for each factor, this analysis constructs a “Board Effectiveness Index” for 145 pension funds.
- The results show that a higher Index score is associated with a higher 10-year investment return on fund assets.