Summary: NC Treasurer Wins Governance Reform to Revive $127B Pension
North Carolina State Treasurer Brad Briner has succeeded in overhauling the governance of the state's $127 billion Retirement Systems, moving away from a sole-fiduciary model toward a multi‑member board structure—a significant shift aimed at improving pension returns.
Key changes include:
Replacing single-person control with the North Carolina Investment Authority, a 5-member board chaired by the treasurer and including appointments by the governor, the legislature, and the treasurer himself pionline.com+7institutionalinvestor.com+7axios.com+7.
The reform addresses long-standing performance issues caused by outdated investment rules and a historically conservative asset mix, including excess cash holdings and caps on alternative investments.
The new board’s mandate is to rebalance assets, diversify holdings into areas like fixed income, infrastructure, and real estate, and calibrate risk levels to drive better long-term returns institutionalinvestor.com+1institutionalinvestor.com+1.
This model also mitigates succession risk by distributing fiduciary authority and aligning NC with governance best practices used in other high-performing state plans like South Carolina and Michigan institutionalinvestor.com.
In his view, shifting to a board model not only brings decision-making responsibility closer to asset management professionals but also protects the system from single-person dependency and political volatility.
This reform is seen as a strategic modernization effort aimed not only at boosting returns but also at enhancing the resilience and accountability of North Carolina’s public pension system.
Reference:
“NC State Treasurer Wins His Fight for Reforms to Resuscitate State Pension,” Institutional Investor pionline.com+9institutionalinvestor.com+9institutionalinvestor.com+9; and accompanying legislation reported by Axios nctreasurer.com+2axios.com+2axios.com+2.