The head of Hawaii\u2019s local government pension fund, Thom Williams, will retire at the end of this year after leading the organization for over a decade.<\/p>\n
Williams has overseen an investment portfolio for the Employees\u2019 Retirement System of the State of Hawaii that grew from $14.4 billion when he was hired as executive director in 2015 to about $24.3 billion today.<\/p>\n
ERS announced the scheduled retirement of
\nWilliams earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Williams in a statement said his job at ERS began as \u201cmerely another professional pursuit\u201d but turned into a labor of love that resulted in enormous progress for the 100-year-old organization to benefit current beneficiaries and future
\ngenerations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith guidance from our Board and support of managerial staff, we have built a program and accompanying organizational structure which is designed to last well beyond the tenure of any single executive,\u201d he said. \u201cI am confident that the talent pool for my successor is deep and that the strategic plan we developed will not only provide direction but make for a seamless
\ntransition to new leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
During his tenure, there have been ups and downs for the fund during good and bad times for financial markets affecting the long-term ability of ERS to cover its retirement, disability and survivor benefit obligations to more than 130,000 state and county employees and
\nformer employees.<\/p>\n
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Emmit Kane, chair of the ERS Board of Trustees, expressed deep gratitude to Williams for what Kane called steadfast leadership and unwavering commitment of Williams to the
\norganization.<\/p>\n
\u201cThom\u2019s vision and dedication have left a lasting, positive impact on the lives of our members and the future of ERS,\u201d Kane said in a statement. \u201cHis legacy is one of integrity, innovation, and service, and we wish him all the best as he embarks on this well-earned retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams, who led the Wyoming Retirement System before he joined ERS, also was praised for improving the organization\u2019s long-term fiscal sustainability, member services and investment performance.<\/p>\n
In the most recent
\nERS actuarial report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024, ERS experienced an actuarial loss as a result of investment returns not achieving an assumed 7% target in 2023 and 2024 after accounting for employee contributions and benefit payments.<\/p>\n
However, the funding ratio for ERS \u2014 what is needed to meet financial obligations \u2014 improved to 63% in the 2024 fiscal year from 62.2% in the prior year.<\/p>\n
The total unfunded liability for ERS in the same comparable period rose to $14.01 billion from $13.71 billion, according to the report by Texas- based actuary Gabriel, Roeder, Smith &Co.<\/p>\n
Based on estimates for employee contributions and beneficiary payments, the report said ERS can achieve full funding in 2046 if its 7% investment return target is met.<\/p>\n
For the nine months through March 31, ERS reported a 3.1% return on its investment
\nportfolio.<\/p>\n
The ERS board has initiated a search for a new executive director, and anticipates announcing a successor later this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The head of Hawaii\u2019s local government pension fund, Thom Williams, will retire at the end of this year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,99,186,184,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-7040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}