Northbrook CFO Appointed To Firefighters Pension Transition Board

From the Village of Northbrook:

NORTHBROOK, IL — On January 31, 2020, Governor Pritzker appointed the Village of Northbrook’s Deputy Village Manager/Chief Financial Officer Jeff Rowitz to the transition board for the Firefighters’ Pension Investment Fund. The transition board will have the responsibility of setting up a structure to consolidate the assets of nearly 300 firefighter pension funds throughout the state.

On December 18, 2019, Governor Pritzker signed Public Act (P.A.) 101-0610 which consolidates the assets of the state’s more than 650 downstate and suburban public safety pension funds into two consolidated investment funds, one for police officers and one for firefighters. The goal of the law is to improve investment returns, eliminate unnecessary and redundant administrative costs, ensure more money is available to fund pension benefits and reduce the burden on local taxpayers.

The law provides for the mandatory consolidation of the investment assets of Illinois’ downstate and suburban police officers’ and firefighters’ pension funds into two new investment funds. The law will create one investment fund for police officers, the Police Officers’ Pension Investment Fund, which will control an estimated $8.7 billion in combined assets, and one investment fund for firefighters, the Firefighters’ Pension Investment Fund, which will control an estimated $6.3 billion in combined assets. Invested together, these funds are estimated to earn as much as $1 million more per day in returns and generate an additional $820 million to $2.5 billion over the first five years, and as much as $12.7 billion over the next 20 years.

The law provides for establishment of a transition board for each statewide investment fund. For the Firefighters’ Pension Investment Fund the transition board is comprised of nine members; three members representing participants, three members representing municipalities, one member representing beneficiaries, one member representing the Associated Firefighter’s of Illinois, and one member representing the Illinois Municipal League. The transition board members will serve until the initial permanent board members are elected and qualified, which shall be no longer than 12 months following the effective date.

This press release was produced by the Village of Northbrook. The views expressed here are the author's own.