The Failure of Private Equity Investments at NYCERS

Below are two screen shots from the June 17, 2025 NYCERS Investment meeting. The charts displayed were prepared by the Comptroller's office and presented to the NYCERS trustees.

The first chart alleges to show the rate of return on alternative investments in the NYCERS investment portfolio. The second chart alleges to show the rate of return relative to their targets measured in plus or minus basis points.

The Comptroller provided no documentation on how the amounts were arrived at. I consider the amounts in these charts to be inflated because the values listed were provided by the general partners running the individual investments and are just estimates.

But even accepting the figures as correct, we see a huge problem with the private equity class. For over ten years it has been 300 basis points (3%) under its target of the Russell 300 plus 300 basis points.

In plain English, NYCERS private equity investments performed exactly like a Russel 3000 index fund.

As of June 30, 2024 NYCERS reported:

• a Russel 1000 index fund worth $12.9B
  • with an investment fee of only $269,000 for FY-2024, and
• private equity investments at a value of $8.46B
  • with $163.4 million in investement fees plus $64.8 million in organizational costs for FY-2024.

On top of this obvious performance failure, the index fund is totally liquid and pays dividends every year from all the stock holdings in the fund.

The trustees are aware of this situation but continue to hire private equity managers. They did, however, dump some private equity managers in March of this year.

Coverup of the Problems with the NYCERS’s Legacy Replacement Project

NYCERS posts videos of its regular monthly board meetings on its website. There are two videos for each meeting .

The first video, Part 1, is a every short clip of only an opening roll call and a motion to go into executive session to hear disability cases and litigation issues. The second video, Part 2, starts with a return to public session and all the items which need to be addressed in public session. The second video usually runs for about 45 minutes but can be shorter.

One of the items that is currently being addressed in public session is the status of the Legacy Replacement Project (LRP). This project is extremely expensive and seriously behind schedule.

Long story short, the LRP contract with Accenture is now projected to be four years late, 2030 rather than 2026 and a detailed resource plan supporting the new 2030 date has already missed its June, 2025 delivery date. NYCERS has paid Accenture approximately $85 million since 2021 and $65 million in secondary costs.

The May 9, 2025, Board Meeting

At the end of the regular LRP status presentation by the NYCERS LRP project manager, a Board member directed a question at the project manager:

“We heard in a prior presentation that, I guess how I would describe it, that there was a lack of wholehearted commitment on at least part of the Accenture team and maybe at the higher levels in terms of the things we would like to see in terms of… therefore…How does that translate down to the NYCERS staff working with the Accenture people. Are they pulling their punches and are they giving it their all?”

(interruption by the Chairperson):

“and so, thanks for the question, I ask you (the project manager) to be mindful in your response that we are in in public session.
“It may be the case that we should have this as an offline conversation.”

After the following silence and subdued laughter, the trustees moved on to the next topic.

Based on the Chairperson’s comments and the silence of all the other trustees, it is clear that the Board is aware of the fiasco surrounding the LRP project and are intent on keeping the problem under wraps.

Time for the Department of Investigation

I recently posted about the incompetence surrounding the LRP project. There now is evidence of a coverup surrounding the LRP project. It is definitely time for Department of Investigation to look into this project.

PR Nonsense from the NYCERS FY-2026 Budget Report on the LRP project

MAJOR TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS/DIGITALIZATION

Legacy Replacement Project (LRP)

The Legacy Replacement Project (LRP) is a transformative, five-phase project to build a new pension administration system. As part of NYCERS’ overall strategic vision, LRP will streamline and automate operational processes and enhance the client experience. In Phase 0, NYCERS and its system integrator completed an overall project assessment, followed by Phase 1, the implementation of foundational changes, in January 2023.

During Phase 2 execution, the team encountered challenges including design delays, complex configuration needs, unforeseen technology compatibility issues, and difficulties in decommissioning the legacy system. As a result, the team decided to deploy the completed Phase 2 functionality as a separate, smaller phase (Phase 2.0). Phase 2.0 successfully deployed on January 21, 2025 as planned, delivering improvements to document management, security, and agency tools. NYCERS and its system integrator are currently replanning the remaining program scope to mitigate risks and ensure a high-quality outcome. The replanning is expected to be completed by June 30, 2025, with the combined Phases 2 and 3 beginning immediately thereafter. The program is now anticipated to be completed by December 2030.