Recently Completed Projects

The Public Employees' Retirement Board of Nevada is responsible for the administration, investment and management of the Public Employees' Retirement System of Nevada ("PERS"), the Nevada Legislators' Retirement System ("LRS") and the Nevada Judicial Retirement System ("JRS"). These systems provide retirement, disability and survivor benefits for public, legislative and judicial workers employed by the State of Nevada.

The Board of Trustees of the Missouri State Employees' Retirement System ("MOSERS") retained IFS, pursuant to a competitive bid, in December 2005, to assist them in evaluating their role as fiduciaries and further to review various aspects of MOSERS' internal operations and investment programs. The operational review focused on 1) identifying and controlling risks, 2) enhancing long-term investment performance, and 3) adopting and implementing industry best practices.

IFS recently completed an evaluation of the legal framework and governance of the investment program of the Chinese National Council for Social Security Fund, in Beijing-- work financed by the Asian Development Bank. Established to help close the gap between promised pension benefits and assets available to pay them, the Fund--now valued at approximately $25 billion (U.S.)-- is financed both by legislative appropriations and by proceeds from initial public offerings of formerly state-owned enterprises.

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.

The Public Employees' Retirement Board of Nevada is responsible for the administration, investment and management of the Public Employees' Retirement System of Nevada ("PERS"), the Nevada Legislators' Retirement System ("LRS") and the Nevada Judicial Retirement System ("JRS"). These systems provide retirement, disability and survivor benefits for public, legislative and judicial workers employed by the State of Nevada.

The Board of Trustees of the Missouri State Employees' Retirement System ("MOSERS") retained IFS, pursuant to a competitive bid, in December 2005, to assist them in evaluating their role as fiduciaries and further to review various aspects of MOSERS' internal operations and investment programs. The operational review focused on 1) identifying and controlling risks, 2) enhancing long-term investment performance, and 3) adopting and implementing industry best practices.

IFS recently completed an evaluation of the legal framework and governance of the investment program of the Chinese National Council for Social Security Fund, in Beijing-- work financed by the Asian Development Bank. Established to help close the gap between promised pension benefits and assets available to pay them, the Fund--now valued at approximately $25 billion (U.S.)-- is financed both by legislative appropriations and by proceeds from initial public offerings of formerly state-owned enterprises.

IFS recently completed for the System an evaluation of the adequacy of compliance by its private asset managers with applicable investment guidelines and assisted in implementing prior recommendations regarding disclosure by the System's investment consultant.

IFS recently completed the development of a questionnaire for candidates seeking to act as the Board's investment consultant, regarding actual or potential conflicts of interest.