SPRINGFIELD, IL – All TRS member benefits for April were paid in full and on schedule today, despite coronavirus restrictions.

Working from home, TRS staff processed and certified payments for 124,853 retired members and beneficiaries and sent the payment requests to the Illinois Comptroller’s office. The Comptroller’s office then transferred the funds on time to the bank accounts of all eligible members.

The benefits paid for April totaled $586 million.

Each year, Teachers’ Retirement System distributes approximately $7 billion in benefits to retired members and beneficiaries, or about $575 million every month. Those benefits must be – and always have been – paid each month, no matter what the economic conditions may be.

TRS will continue to have sufficient funds to meet all benefit payments on time and in full for the foreseeable future despite the worldwide economic upheaval created by the spread of the coronavirus.

SPRINGFIELD, IL – Teachers’ Retirement System in recent weeks has committed $3 billion to various investment opportunities in order to continue building the fund’s assets for its members’ retirements.

Reports to the TRS Board of Trustees indicated that the System ended calendar year 2019 with a positive 13.4 percent investment return, net of fees.

SPRINGFIELD, IL – Teachers’ Retirement System Board of Trustees has selected Voya Financial to administer the new TRS Supplemental Savings Plan, a defined contribution retirement vehicle that TRS members can elect to supplement their TRS pensions.

Voya Financial of Windsor, Connecticut, will administer the SSP as a voluntary 457(b)-style plan that allows participating members to contribute a portion of each paycheck to a savings account that is then invested on their behalf.

SPRINGFIELD, IL – The Teachers’ Retirement System Board of Trustees has given preliminary approval to a $5.14 billion state contribution to the System for fiscal year 2021, a 6.9 percent increase over the current fiscal year’s government contribution of $4.81 billion.

The Board also announced that the TRS investment portfolio generated a positive 5.15 percent return, net of fees, during fiscal year 2019.

SPRINGFIELD, IL – Teachers’ Retirement System reported $1.15 billion in strategic allocations to various investment opportunities designed to enhance the retirement trust fund for the System’s 417,000 members.

During the Board of Trustees’ regularly scheduled August meeting, the TRS investment staff reported the following actions:

SPRINGFIELD, IL – Veteran TRS investment staff member Jose Gonzalez has been named by Teachers’ Retirement System to be the investment officer leading the System’s $750 million Emerging Manager Program, which continually identifies and nurtures growing money managers.

The Emerging Manager Program is an integral element of the long-standing TRS commitment to expanding opportunity and diversity within its investment portfolio.

Three Members Elected in May to the TRS Board of Trustees

Marsha Byas of Harrisburg, Trustee

SPRINGFIELD, IL – Teachers’ Retirement System has hired Cammack Retirement Group, of New York, New York, to serve as the System’s consultant to assist in the creation of a first-ever “defined contribution” retirement plan that TRS must make available to all 161,000 active members.