Your Right to Know
Oregon Treasury puts your PERS retirement money into
opaque PRIVATE investments
— many contributing to the climate crisis.
Legally you have the
RIGHT TO KNOW
what your pension is invested in, how the returns for those investments compare with each other, and what the Treasury is doing to protect your retirement fund from climate risk!
If you're a PERS member, a PERS retiree, or a designated beneficiary of a PERS retiree,
TELL the Oregon Treasury you want this information
by signing this simple form!
Oregon Treasury's new building is designed
to withstand wildfires and floods.
Are your retirement funds as climate resilient
as the Treasury building?
Treasury is Keeping PERS Beneficiaries in the Dark
WHY?
Treasury has never revealed its fossil fuel investments to the public. Why?
- Divest Oregon had to file public records requests and do an expert analysis to learn that at least $5.3 billion in fossil fuel investments are held by the Treasury.
- Divest Oregon has calculated that PERS fossil fuel investments underperformed the market by $4 billion - $10 billion over the last 10 years.
- There are certainly many more fossil fuel investments held in Treasury’s secret private investments.
- These facts and more are reported in Divest Oregon’s Risky Business report.
If you have a 401K, you can see how your retirement is invested. Not so with PERS. Why?
PERS members are NOT told by Treasury about how a big chunk of their money is invested. Funds in private investments are kept secret by Treasury.
PERS private investments get mediocre 10-year returns – but they are 60% of the PERS fund. Why?
- Oregon PERS is one of the largest private investors in the US and the world.
- Private investments lock in fossil fuel investments for 10 years or more.
- Terms of private investment contracts, including manager fees, are not disclosed.
- Rates of return are just estimates until the investment is sold.
Treasury released a Climate Risk Assessment that shows risk to PERS returns – but whited out many details. Why?
- Treasury is hiding the full findings of its commissioned Climate Risk Assessment which shows specifics about PERS exposure to climate risks.
- Treasury is not disclosing if it’s dealing with the serious impact of climate risk on PERS retirement fund investments.