West Virginia Consolidated Public Retirement Board has voted unanimously to prepare a state Supreme Court challenge to a circuit court ruling that blocked a plan to merge the $748 million state Teachers’ Defined Contribution Plan into the $2.17 billion West Virginia Teachers’ Retirement System, both of Charleston, according to Anne Werum Lambright, the board’s executive director. The board is expected to decide to go ahead with the challenge at its May 23 board meeting, she said.
In a Jan. 26 ruling, a circuit court judge blocked the merger in response to a lawsuit by participants in the 401(a) plan, ruling that it would violate the federal and state constitutions by authorizing the seizure of the dissident plan participants’ private property interest in their defined contribution accounts without their permission.
The retirement board administers state retirement plans with assets totaling about $8 billion.
