Recently Completed Projects

IFS was retained to perform an independent operational review of the Central Pennsylvania Teamsters Pension Fund and delivered its final First Report in December 2006.

The Ohio Retirement Study Council (ORSC) retained IFS in 2005 to conduct fiduciary performance audits of STRS and OP&F (collectively, the Systems), two of the five statewide public pension funds in the state of Ohio, with assets of nearly $60 billion as of June 30, 2005 and $13 billion as of December 31, 2005, respectively. STRS manages approximately 77% of its assets internally while OP&F uses virtually 100% external investment management.

Acting as independent fiduciary on behalf of defined benefit and defined contribution plans sponsored by Fortunoff, IFS has completed the sale of a 4-acre property in Long Island, New York to a national insurance company. The plans had acquired the property in 1993 from one of the Fortunoff companies sponsoring the plans, and leased the property, with its warehouse, back to the plans pursuant to a prohibited transaction exemption granted by the Department of Labor.

The Krispy Kreme Corporation Retirement Savings Plan and the Krispy Kreme Profit-Sharing Stock Ownership Plan retained IFS to determine whether to approve the settlement of an ERISA class action lawsuit brought against Krispy Kreme and various alleged plan fiduciaries, asserting breaches of fiduciary duty in the management of the Plans' investment in Krispy Kreme stock. The suit alleged that the fiduciary breaches caused damage to the plans' participants as a result of dramatic declines in value of the Krispy Kreme stock.

The Fluor Corporation Master Retirement Trust includes defined benefit plans as well as defined contribution plans that Fluor sponsors and maintains. The Investment Committee of the Master Trust, on behalf of those defined benefit plans, retained IFS as an independent fiduciary and investment manager to determine whether and on what terms the DB Plans should acquire from the DC Plans their interest in a pool of private equity limited partnerships held within the Master Trust.

IFS was retained by the plan to analyze the terms of the settlement of a class action alleging breaches of fiduciary by the plan's fiduciaries associated with the plan's ownership of Westar stock and determine whether the settlement was reasonable. Working with outside counsel, IFS reviewed the relevant plan documents and court filings and interviewed the attorneys involved in the lawsuit and the mediator who conducted the settlement discussions.

IFS has been serving since 2003 as the independent fiduciary for two retirement plans (one cash balance plan and one profit sharing plan) sponsored by Fortunoff with respect to a Long Island, New York warehouse the plans purchased from one of the Fortunoff companies in 1992 and leased back to the company. Acting for the plans, IFS had taken steps to bring the plans and the company into compliance with the terms of the lease, agreed to a lease extension and supported a successful application to the Department of Labor for a prohibited transaction exemption permitting the lease extension.

IFS voted the shares of AmSouth Bank and Regions Financial Corporation held by the AmSouth Plans with respect to the proposed merger of AmSouth and Regions.

The Board of Trustees (the "Board") of the City of Oakland Police and Fire Retirement System ("PFRS") retained IFS, through a competitive bidding process, to conduct a management audit. A review of this nature had never been conducted by PFRS. The scope of the project covered over a dozen task areas, including governance and accountability, expert advice and the role of legal counsel, disclosure requirements, investment analysis and performance, investment benchmarks, investment reporting and monitoring, custody and securities lending and internal controls.

IFS was engaged act as the independent fiduciary on behalf of three pension plans with respect to a warehouse property which the plans had purchased from and leased back to one of the companies pursuant to a prohibited transaction exemption issued by the U.S. Department of Labor. As independent fiduciary, we reviewed the status of the tenant company's compliance with the terms of the lease and the exemption. We engaged the services of an independent appraisal firm to appraise the property both currently and retrospectively as of the end of each year since the plans acquired it.