State of Tennessee, Treasury Department

The Treasury Department of the State of Tennessee is one of the three legislative agencies within the state of Tennessee. Its main functions are to receive and disburse public funds, manage all state investments, administer three major employee benefit programs including the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System, the Deferred Compensation Program, and the Flexible Benefits Plan, operate the Unclaimed Property, College Savings, and Small and Minority-Owned Business programs, and oversee the risk management program and handle and adjudicate all claims made against the state. David H. Lillard, Jr. is the current Tennessee treasurer and was first elected to office in 2009, being the 41st state treasurer since the system began back in 2836. Membership within the retirement system of Tennessee is given to full-time state employees, teachers, general employees in higher education and the employees of local governments that participate in the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System (TCRS) and there are currently over 200,000 active members within the system. The system paid out over $1.9 billion in total benefits in 2014 to over 125,000 retirees. The investment objective of the TCRS investment division is to “obtain the highest available return on investments consistent with the preservation of principal, while maintaining sufficient liquidity to react to the changing environment and to pay beneficiaries in a timely manner.” The department emphasizes a conservative investment strategy and high quality securities with a long term perspective. The funds within this system are actively managed with a diversified portfolio of high-quality domestic and international bonds, domestic and international stocks, real estate, private equity and money market instruments. The treasury invests over $36 billion in its various selections with over $28 billion in domestic allocations and over $8.5 billion in international allocations. The assets are allocated in the financial sector, which along makes up over a quarter of total assets allocated, technology, services, and health care sectors, among many others, in order of decreasing amount allocated.