New estimates are once again predicting that the State Health Plan faces a deficit in the not-too-distant future. Plan executive administrator Tom Friedman’s briefing of trustees on Tuesday shows its cash balance dropping into negative numbers by the middle of 2027. “We’re candidly never going to be done having to actively manage this thing, Friedman […]
North Carolina’s state pension system had a 13% annual return in 2025, the N.C. Investment Authority reported this week. When excluding fees, that performance ranked in the 54th percentile of U.S. public pension funds with assets topping $20 billion, according to a report filed by State Treasurer Brad Briner. (Lower percentiles reflect better performance.) New legislation created the […]
North Carolina’s public retirement-system investments earned an estimated 13.3% return in calendar 2025, just under the average for well-stocked peer investment funds. It “was a very strong year,” said Kevin SigRist, chief investment officer in State Treasurer Brad Briner’s office and such the head of the new N.C. Investment Authority. The numbers are a continuation […]
Trustees of the state’s largest public-employee pension plan have confirmed that they’ll ask legislators for a 2026-27 employer contribution equivalent to 17.49% of covered salaries. The decision in effect means that the state would contribute just under $3.5 billion to the Teachers’ and State Employees’ Retirement System — TSERS — for the year, according to […]
State Treasurer Brad Briner and his team are keeping an eye on the digital-assets market, but Briner doesn’t yet see it as something that North Carolina’s retirement funds should invest in. “We have not found their risk and return to be a compelling match for what we’re trying to do in the retirement system,” Briner […]
Local Government Commission members voted 6-2 to say they think a new town in Alexander County could be financially viable if legislators allow it to incorporate. But the required advisory opinion about the potential incorporation of Bethlehem came with caveats. One of those, written into its opinion, is that the state has a “severe shortage […]
The State Health Plan is out of the woods financially, at least for the short term, but members are likely to see further premium and benefits changes in 2027, its executive administrator says. Thanks in part to the rate and benefit changes previously approved, “we are not going to be in a deficit for 2026 […]
The Stein administration’s plan to bolster rural healthcare program isn’t bold enough or innovative enough, at least in the eyes of State Treasurer Brad Briner and his aides. “We would have preferred a more transformative approach to actually deal with the dis-economies of scale that are endemic to rural health, through [the] use of technology, […]
Back in October, state investment managers sold off $6.4 million in Israeli government bonds. Now, pro-Palestinian activists are claiming this as a victory for their boycott and divestment campaign. “We feel very confident that this decision represents the power of people’s voices from across the state who have called attention to these problematic investments,” said […]
North Carolina’s retirement system ended the Sept. 30 fiscal year with $139 billion in assets, an 10% increase from a year earlier. The N.C. Investment Authority reported that the retirement fund had an investment return of about 11%, reflecting “a robust market and strategic decisions.” The retirement funds aim for a 6.5% annual rate of […]
The state treasurer’s office was also in the news Thursday because it announced that it’s “uncovered $170 million in unspent and unallocated funds” during a review of the state’s cash accounts. Going forward, and given statutory limitations on its use, the treasurer’s office intends to deploy the money to reduce the state’s outstanding debt, Briner […]
State Treasurer Brad Briner’s and Gov. Josh Stein’s aides are at odds about the governor’s 2025-27 biennium budget request, which Briner’s team sees as shortchanging the state’s pension system. Via a news release, Briner said he was “disappointed the governor is proposing for only the second time in 83 years to not fully fund our state’s retirement system.” […]
Incoming State Treasurer Brad Briner named Duke Health manager Thomas Friedman to the executive administrator post for the State Health Plan, which spends more money on healthcare than any other N.C. entity. Before his six years at Duke Health, Friedman worked at the State Health Plan as director of policy, planning and analysis. The plan […]
The completion of the Cone/Risant merger occurred on the same day as outgoing State Treasurer Dale Folwell’s valedictory monthly “Ask Me Anything” news conference. As might be expected, his comments included a blast at what he terms the state’s “health care cartel.” The trends there are “all going in the wrong direction,” Folwell said, adding […]
Treasurer-Elect Brad Briner said Monday he is bringing back Kevin SigRist as chief investment officer of the N.C. Retirement Systems. It’s the same role Sigrist had from 2013-17, when Janet Cowell was State Treasurer. SigRist resigned from his post in July 2017, about six months after Dale Folwell’s election. “It is time the assets managed […]
