PUBLIC EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT SYSTEM OF OHIO

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio is the largest state pension fund in Ohio and is currently the 11th largest public retirement system and 15th largest retirement system in the U.S. The system was established in 1935 to establish a secure means to provide retirement benefits to Ohio public employees. In 1938, the system expanded to include county, municipalities, health department, and park and conservancy district employees. The system would continue to expand, adding survivor benefits in 1951 and offering health care benefits beginning in the 1960s. The Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio, then known as the Public Employees Retirement System, would then add a Law Enforcement Division and begin paying health care premiums in the 1970s. In the 2000s, the system would add Member-Directed and Combined Plans on top of its Traditional Plan and also establish the Health Care Preservation Plan, changing its name from the Public Employees Retirement System to its current Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio, or OPERS for short. OPERS currently services over 1 million members split into: approximately 350,000 active members contributing to the system, 465,000 inactive members maintain retirement accounts from past employment, and 190,000 retirees and beneficiaries receiving pension or some form of benefits from the system. Over 3,700 public employers in Ohio are part of OPERS and the system itself receives money mainly from these employer’s contributions, employee contributions, and return on investments. Approximately two thirds of its revenue comes from investment returns while the remaining third comes from employer and employee contributions. OPERS’s assets are comprised of the pension fund, composed of $63.5 billion, and the health care fund, composed of $12.8 billion. The system invests mostly in the services, financial, technology, and health care sectors, together making up over two thirds of its total asset allocations, and also invests in a variety of other sectors to a lesser extent.