National Council on Teacher Retirement and National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems Use Dirty Tricks To Undermine Pension Wrongdoing Investigations

Two industry organizations which pensions pay membership dues to attend lavish conferences sponsored by Wall Street at luxury venues secretly work to thwart transparency and accountability reforms.

Newly released documents reveal two industry organizations, NCTR and NCPERS, secretly use dirty tricks to undermine transparency, accountability reforms and oppose the best interests of pension stakeholders—including participants and taxpayers.

Unless you’re a state or local pension board or staff member, you’ve probably never heard of the National Council on Teacher Retirement (NCTR) and National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS). Maybe your public pension proudly posts on its website so-called “awards” issued by these organizations for supposed “excellence.” Still, you really don’t know anything about NCTR and NCPERS and are understandably suspicious as to whether their industry “awards” have any real value.

Most likely, tens of thousands of your pension dollars are squandered annually to pay for your pension’s board and staff members to attend lavish conferences at luxury venues, such as on the famed beaches of Waikiki, promoted by these organizations. If you want to know exactly how much of your retirement savings are paid to NCTR and NCPERS for these fetes, submit a public records request to your pension for all documents related to such memberships, fees, dues and travel. Share the information you receive with fellow pension stakeholders. They deserve to be told the truth.

In addition to the cash they rake in from trusting public pensions, NCTR and NCPERS garner exponentially greater dollars from Wall Street money managers who willingly fork over big bucks to sponsor NCTR and NCPERS conferences—all for the opportunity to pitch their costliest investment products to “the dumbest investors in the room,” i.e., funds overseen by laymen lacking any investment experience. These soirees are all about marketing.

How many of the Wall Street firms hired to manage your pension’s assets are sponsors of pricey NCTR and NCPERS boondoggles? The answer might be revealing.

In addition to the cash they rake in from public pensions, NCTR and NCPERS garner exponentially greater dollars from Wall Street money managers who willingly fork over big bucks to sponsor NCTR and NCPERS conferences—all for the opportunity to pitch their costliest investment products to “the dumbest investors in the room,” i.e., funds overseen by laymen lacking any investment experience.

• NCTR and NCPERS Use Dirty Tricks To Thwart Minnesota and Other Forensic Investigations Nationally

While NCTR and NCPERS claim to somehow support public pensions—as they profit from Wall Street fleecing funds—recently released documents reveal both organizations secretly work to undermine transparency, accountability reforms and oppose the best interests of pension stakeholders—including participants and taxpayers.

As detailed in an earlier article, recently we were provided with documents from the Minnesota Teacher Retirement Association (TRA) which revealed TRA and State Board of Investment (SBI) senior investment staff and board members, state legislators and officials were alarmed that a proposed forensic investigation funded by thousands of Minnesota teachers into the TRA pension posed “many serious risks to the agency and pension fund. Specifically, TRA’s reputation as a trusted government agency is going to be questioned.” State officials were panicked.

On the other hand, NCTR and NCPERS assured state officials that any investigative findings would be a worthless “big pile of opinions” and “lies.” Further, NCTR and NCPERS offered to help officials—secretly, behind-the-scenes—undermine the Minnesota investigation, the investigator’s reputation and the “movement” for participant-funded reform-oriented investigations nationally.

NCTR and NCPERS offered to help—secretly, behind-the-scenes—officials undermine the Minnesota investigation, the investigator’s reputation and the “movement” for participant-funded reform-oriented investigations nationally.

TRA is a longstanding member of NCTR. Indeed, former TRA board members have been “honored” by NCTR for their participation in NCTR. TRA regularly includes in its Annual Report a Recognition Award for Administration presented by the Public Pension Coordinating Council, which is comprised of NCTR, NCPERS and the National Association of State Retirement Administrators. For what it’s worth—which isn’t much—the industry-conferred award is supposedly “in recognition of meeting professional standards for plan administration as set forth in the Public Pension Standards.”

TRA regularly pay tens of thousands of pension dollars for its officials to travel to and attend lavish NCTR conferences held at luxury venues.

As NCTR advertises on its website:

Interested in Partnering with NCTR? 

Becoming an NCTR event sponsor gives you the opportunity to be in a face-to-face environment where you can network and increase market visibility. Gain the competitive advantage, while making direct connections with high-level decision makers from more than 63 public pension systems from across the nation, with combined assets exceeding $2 trillion in their trust funds.  

The opportunity to directly pitch your investment products to unsophisticated funds with over $2 trillion in assets in a casual atmosphere, absent any pesty gatekeepers hired to rigorously review your reputation and credentials? That’s worth a lot—priceless.

So controversial are these industry conferences that the website for the 2013 National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems held on the famed beaches of Waikiki, supplied board members hoping to shore up support for their expenses-paid trip a “2013 Attendance Justification Tool Kit.” The site also included “7 Tips for Building Your Case for Attending the Annual Conference,” which suggests that trustees emphasize how the conference could help them “build a networking list” and identify ways to help “save your fund money.”

NCPERS is also involved in selling insurance products and other services to public employees, including TRA members, in Minnesota.

Here’s a nasty email from Leigh Snell, Federal Relations Director of NCTR, to an alarmed Jay Stoffel, the Executive Director of TRA dated March 5^th: 

Jay,

Dean just told me the ugly news about Ted Siedle going after your plan.

Ugh.

I have covered Siedle for quite some time. Most recently, he has been active in Rhode Island trying to “crowd source” an investigation of the plan’s actions and their impact on COLA’s. I believe his last major attack on a plan was in Ohio in 2021, and I did a special report in 2023 that tried to really expose his shenanigans as well as cover both the Ohio State Auditor’s examination of his so-called “forensic audit” as well as the Ohio Teachers Plan’s review. I included, where I thought it was appropriate, other activities by Siedle in Florida and elsewhere. At the time I wrote this, both NCPERS and the National Public Pension Coalition (NPPC) were also looking at him. I will see what I can find if they dug up anything you can use.

The folks who are hiring Siedle need to understand that all they will get for their money is a big pile of his opinions, which are not worth much more than the paper they are written on. Also, he simply lies about plans’ cooperation with him and about what he thinks they are up to. He has made millions on his whistle-blowing gig, and he can afford to do these investigations without the $5 and $10 dollar contributions of public pension retirees!! They can read his Ohio “audit” and the one he did of the Jacksonville FL Police and Fire Plan and save their money. I guarantee the one he does of your plan will look just the same!! (emphasis added)

Good luck, Jay! Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to help!

• Organizing Zoom Meetings to Oppose National “Movement” for Transparency and Accountability Reforms

Prior to commencement of the Minnesota investigation, state officials and their industry allies at NCTR and NCPERS organized Zoom meetings with pension officials in other states, including New York, California, Ohio, and Rhode Island opposed to the “movement” for participant-initiated forensic investigations to improve transparency and accountability. NRTA and the powerful NEA teachers union reportedly wrote “a generic education piece that can be used by national organizations to hopefully “inoculate” retirees” against forensic reviews of their pensions.

It seems the biggest threat to the integrity of public pensions nationally at that moment in time was truth-seeking, participant-funded, independent expert forensic investigations that state officials could not control.

In another revealing March 19^th email from Snell to Stoffel:

Thanks, Jay. Glad it helped. Hank Kim also hosted a Zoom call yesterday concerning “opposition research” on Siedle, and I will be working with NRTA and NEA on a generic education piece that can be used by national organizations to hopefully “inoculate” retirees to Ted’s pitch when he comes calling. At this point, the plan is to be pretty generic, and we may not even mention his name but perhaps refer to “forensic audits” and other such “plan research.” I realize that won’t really help you, but it may help other plans down the road.

As for a letter to you, would you mind sharing the media inquiry you received as it may give me an idea of what the press is seizing on that we may want to be sure to address. Also, can you give me an idea as to how you plan to use an NCTR letter? Widely distributed to your membership and the press? Targeted use with policymakers? Both? Finally, should it be addressed to you or to your Board? Or both? I need to finish up my FYI for this week, and I have a planning call tomorrow for my upcoming webinar on A.I. next week. However, I plan to start on a letter tomorrow and hopefully get something to you by the end of the week.

Hang in there!!

On March 24^th, Jill Schurtz, Chief Investment Officer of SBI, asked NCTR’s Snell for assistance intervening with certain reporters she had learned (from spying on the Minnesota Educators For Pension Reform Facebook Group) were already talking with Group members. Schurtz wrote:

The four TRA members who raised funds for the Ted Seidel engagement posted the update below to their Facebook page. Of particular note, they state that they will be speaking with a reporter from P&I online on Monday. I was wondering if it would make sense to provide background information to P&I? I’m guessing you may have the right contacts?

Would appreciate any guidance you could share.

On March 25^th, NCTR’s Snell rescued Schurtz at SBI by contacting reporters at the trade publication Pensions & Investments. Snell also brought a third industry organization, the National Association of State Retirement Administrators, in on the media-shaping effort:

The ball is rolling. I have connected with Erin, who wants to talk tomorrow AM. I shared my “Special Report” (see attached) on Ted from last year with her for background purposes only. All I intend to do is make sure Erin understands what he has done in the past, and it will all be “on background.” Don’t plan to really discuss TRA issues and will defer to you guys on that if that works for you. I have also talked with my friend Hazel Bradford with P&I, who has also reached out to Erin and warned her she needs background before talking with Ted. I have also asked Keith Brainard with NASRA if he wants to join the call with Erin.

Hope this works with all of you.

To which Schurtz responded:

Leigh - that sounds like a good idea. Before we speak with P and I, all the MN folks on this email will connect in the morning (we’re all at the same LCPR meeting) to make sure we’re on the same page with taking this step.

Very grateful for your support!

Schurtz and Leigh’s intervention between Pensions & Investments reporters and Facebook Group members has been successful to date. Despite a lengthy interview and request for photographs of Facebook Group organizers, since March the trade publication has not written any article about the newsworthy participant-funded investigation. On the other hand, this month Schurtz was named an honoree in Pensions & Investments’ 2024 Influential Women in Institutional Investing program. Lemons turned to lemonade.

Public pension stakeholders need to understand how NCTR and NCPERS profit from state and local funds, their secret agendas and dirty tricks used to undermine transparency and accountability reforms. Anyone interested in public fund reform initiatives should learn more about the role these secretive organizations play.