Current and former public pension plan trustees as well as plan staff members should be permanently barred from providing placement agent services for those plans, according to a recommendation by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
AFSCME in a report, “Enhancing Public Retiree Pension Plan Security: Best Practice Policies for Trustees and Pension Systems,” also recommended that public plans restrict political contributions from money managers to parties in position to influence plan investment decisions.
Scott Adams, AFSCME pension analyst, said the report is intended to make sure that pension trustees “have the core competencies needed to make the right decisions and that pension systems operate in a fully transparent manner where conflicts of interests and other actions that could be questioned are avoided.”
The full report is available at http://www.afscme.org/pensions.