August Board Meeting Summary

The Public School and Education Employee Retirement Systems of Missouri (PSRS/PEERS) Board of Trustees convened on Monday, August 25, 2025, at the PSRS/PEERS Office located at 3210 W. Truman Blvd., Jefferson City, Missouri. In attendance were Board members Dr. Eric Park: Allie Gassmann: Katie Webb: Chuck Bryant: Dr. Nate Moore: and Amanda Perschall. Also present were Executive Director Dearld Snider: Chief Operating Officer Sarah Swoboda: Chief Investment Officer Craig Husting: Chief Counsel Mike Moorefield: Chief Financial Officer Brandon Robertson: Executive Advisor, Finance and Strategy, Anita Brand: Director of Human Resources Michelle Varcho: Director of Member Services Nicole Hamler: Director of Employer Services Stacie Verslues: Director of Internal Audit Jeff Hyman: Chief Technology Officer Lisa Scheulen: Chief Information Security Officer Jake Woratzeck: Director of Executive and Board Administration Jennifer Martin; and other PSRS/PEERS staff members.

Regular Board Meeting

System Operations

Approval of Minutes

The Board unanimously approved the open session minutes from the June 9-10, 2025, Operations Symposium and Board Meeting.

Order of Business

The order of business was approved with no changes.

Other

PSRS/PEERS Executive Director Dearld Snider and Chief Investment Officer Craig Husting presented a plaque to Anita Brand for her dedication and service to PSRS/PEERS. Ms. Brand will retire on October 1, 2025.

Investment Report

Fiscal Year 2025 Performance and Attribution

Mr. Craig Husting from PSRS/PEERS and Mr. Michael Hall, an investment consultant from Russell Investments, provided a detailed presentation on the PSRS/PEERS fiscal year 2025 investment performance. The presentation included the following: (1) a review of the Systems' investment principles and asset allocation, (2) a summary of fiscal year 2025 performance, (3) PSRS/PEERS' performance relative to expectations and relative to peer groups, (4) attribution for fiscal year 2025 performance, and (5) an update on fiscal year 2026.

Mr. Husting reported that the fiscal year 2025 (July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025) investment return for PSRS/PEERS was approximately 10.8%, or 10.6% net of all fees and expenses.

Mr. Husting reported that the five-year annualized return for the Systems for the period ending June 30, 2025, was 10.3%, or 10.1% net of all fees and expenses. The Systems outperformed the passive benchmark, which returned 8.6% for the five-year period. The five-year PSRS and PEERS investment return exceeded 64% of the peer group as defined by the Wilshire TUCS universe of public pension plans with assets more than $1 billion. The Systems generated the investment return while taking less risk than approximately two-thirds of comparable public funds. The PSRS/PEERS internal investment staff and external investment managers added value above the policy benchmark of over $5.1 billion, net of all fees and expenses, for the last five years. The outperformance was due to portfolio construction and tactical asset allocation decisions by internal investment staff (overweighting and underweighting asset classes around targets) as well as active management on the part of external managers.

Investment Beliefs

Mr. Husting and Mr. Hall discussed that "best practice" governance models have structured Investment Beliefs. The Systems adopted Investment Beliefs in 2015. Mr. Husting and Mr. Hall stated that Mr. Hall would work with the Board and senior staff to re-underwrite the current Investment Beliefs. The goal is to have the Investment Beliefs re-confirmed/adapted by December, prior to the next Asset Liability Study in February 2026.

Investment Policy

The Investment Policy was originally adopted in 1995. The investment staff periodically conducts a full review of the Investment Policy and recommends changes to the Board. The last full review was conducted in December 2024.

Mr. Husting discussed proposed changes to the General Policy; the Environmental, Social and Governance Policy; the Anti-Terrorism and Economic Sanctions Policy; the Proxy Voting Policy; the Service Provider Hiring, Retention, and Termination Policy; and Implementation Manuals for Public Risk, Private Credit, and Private Equity.

The recommendations included changes to comply with new state statutes (effective August 28, 2025). Additionally, changes were included to codify current practices, including clarifications and compliance.

Following discussion, the proposed investment policy changes were approved by unanimous vote.

Management Report

CEM Benchmarking

PSRS/PEERS participated in the CEM benchmarking study based on fiscal year 2024 performance. Ms. Sarah Swoboda and Ms. Jenny Patterson from PSRS/PEERS and Mr. Chris Doll with CEM Benchmarking Inc. presented a summary of the final report. CEM benchmarked PSRS/PEERS' service and costs compared to 75 leading global pension systems, including 12 in our peer group that are similar in size.

For the ninth year in a row, the results were very positive, with an overall service score of 89 out of 100. This high level of service was provided in a cost-efficient manner with total administration costs below the average cost of the CEM universe.

Mr. Doll explained to the Board how CEM measures both costs and service by analyzing more than 120 key performance metrics. Ms. Swoboda expressed her appreciation to CEM and to the staff of PSRS/PEERS for continuing to provide a high level of service in a cost-efficient manner.

Key Accomplishments

Ms. Sarah Swoboda, Ms. Anita Brand, Mr. Craig Husting, and Mr. Dearld Snider from PSRS/PEERS reviewed some key accomplishments since the April Board Meeting.

Ms. Swoboda informed the Board that Phase 2 of the WMS Document Center is now live. Phase 2 has an updated look, as well as additional information available to members. More than 40 batch jobs will now be viewable automatically to members in their Document Center. Members will be notified via email with a deep link when they have new documents.

Ms. Brand next recognized the new Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Brandon Robertson. Mr. Robertson joined PSRS/PEERS in May. Mr. Robertson comes to PSRS/PEERS from PwC, one of the world's largest professional services networks. He is an actuary with 24 years of experience delivering actuarial and financial services related to retirement and compensation programs, including 15 years supporting PSRS/PEERS. Mr. Robertson will lead the Actuarial, Accounting, and Investment Operations teams.

Ms. Brand also shared that the Systems received the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for the Systems' fiscal year 2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report. The Systems have received the GFOA Certificate of Achievement each year since 1994.

Ms. Sarah Swoboda then discussed the second graduating class of the Supervisor LEAD Program. This program kicked off in August 2024 and concluded in July 2025. During the program, participating PSRS supervisors met with members of the management team for in-depth presentations; attended various PSRS events, such as Board meetings and conferences; and completed four day-long leadership training sessions with a third-party facilitator. The members presented a capstone project to the management team that focused on ways to improve the new employee experience at PSRS and the creation of an employee mentorship program.

Next, Ms. Swoboda reviewed the 2025 operations summer interns: Vincent Bonham in Human Resources and Jacob LaPage and Ben Wilbers in Maintenance.

Ms. Swoboda also discussed the implementation of new job shadowing policies and procedures. Job shadowing will provide interested students with a comprehensive understanding of various jobs performed in different sections of the Systems.  The first student to take advantage of this new program job shadowed members of our IT team over the summer.

Mr. Craig Husting then discussed the investment internship program. We had five interns complete the program over the summer. The program included site visits to the St. Louis Federal Reserve and NISA Investment Advisors. The interns also met with senior portfolio managers, engaged in due diligence meetings with external asset managers, participated in live private deals, and created an interactive drawdown chart. They were also given the opportunity to obtain their Bloomberg Certification and complete the Wall Street Prep coursework. PSRS/PEERS Investments now has a dedicated investment internship program page, which allows us to showcase the program and past participants to recruit high-quality participants.

Lastly, Mr. Dearld Snider shared that the PSRS/PEERS Board of Trustees are the finalists for two distinguished awards. The first award is an Award for Leadership and Vision from Institutional Investor. The second award is for Fiduciary of the Year from The Allocator.

Member Services Report

Ms. Nicole Hamler from PSRS/PEERS reviewed Member Services statistics for the 2024-2025 fiscal year and discussed the department's many accomplishments during that time. She also commended her team for continuing to provide a high level of customer service. Ms. Hamler presented total membership statistics, active service information, benefits, working after retirement, and total member interactions.

Implementation of Regulations

Mr. Mike Moorefield from PSRS/PEERS presented three proposed amendments to Title 16, Division 10, of the Missouri State Code of Regulations, amending Chapters 5 and 6, which govern PSRS and PEERS. These amendments are all member friendly and clarify current language and processes. The Board voted unanimously to approve the proposed amendments.

CPI-U Update

Mr. Dearld Snider reviewed the COLA policy set by the Board of Trustees at their November 3, 2017, meeting. According to the policy, COLAs may be granted based on the CPI-U as follows:

Mr. Snider explained that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) calculates the Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers (CPI-U). The CPI-U measures the change in prices of goods and services purchased by urban consumers between any two time periods. PSRS/PEERS regulation requires that the time period for the CPI-U calculation used in the determination of a COLA be from June to June. Based on the values provided by the BLS, the CPI-U is up 2.67% for the year ended June 30, 2025. The CPI-U calculation for fiscal year 2025-2026 is 0.15% through July 31, 2025. The August CPI-U update will not be released until September 11, 2025.

Public Comment

None

Other

None

Closed Session

The Board went into closed session at 12 p.m.

Adjournment

The Board adjourned at 1:48 p.m.

This summary is not official minutes of the PSRS/PEERS Board of Trustees meeting. The official minutes will be approved at the next PSRS/PEERS Board of Trustees meeting and will be posted to our website at that time.