Rougeou Named President Elect on NASRA Board

LASERS Executive Director
Cindy Rougeou

Cynthia Y. Rougeou, Executive Director of the Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System (LASERS), has been named President Elect of the Executive Board by members of the National Association of State Retirement Administrators (NASRA).

NASRA is a non-profit association whose members are the directors of the nation’s state, territorial, and largest statewide public retirement systems. NASRA members oversee retirement systems that hold more than $2 trillion in assets and that provide pension and other benefits to more than two-thirds of all state and local government employees.

Rougeou assumes the new position after serving as first Vice President of the Executive Board. Previously, she was Second Vice President of the Executive Board and prior to that, NASRA’s Region 4 Vice President, which includes Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Colorado, New Mexico, and Kansas.

“I am honored to be a part of NASRA and their mission to support and assist other public pension systems around the country,” said Rougeou. “In these challenging times, it is vital to communicate with decision makers about the importance of a sound public retirement system. NASRA provides the resources to assist in achieving this critical goal.”

For more information, contact Tonja Normand at 225.922.1131 or tnormand@lasersonline.org.

LASERS investment returns up 11.1%

By Marsha Shuler

The Advocate

Capitol News Bureau

The Louisiana State Employees Retirement System registered 11.1 percent in retirement investment returns for the first nine months of 2012, pension system officials announced.

“Any time we get good numbers, we like to boast about it,” said Maris LeBlanc, deputy director of Louisiana State Employees Retirement System, or LASERS. “It’s good news in that we are posting positive investment returns. We are recognized as doing as well or better than our peers in comparison.”

LeBlanc said Tuesday LASERS started the year with $8.634 billion in investments. The system had assets of $9 billion.

As of the June 30, 2012, actuarial valuation, LASERS has 52,352 active state employee members and 42,722 retiree members.

In spite of a major market downturn during the decade’s “Great Recession,” the pension system earned a 9 percent annualized return for the 10-year period that ended Sept. 30, said Cindy Rougeou, LASERS executive director.

LASERS is ranked as one of the top public pensions systems in the U.S. that have a market value of more than $1 billion by Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service, which has the largest database of any peer-comparison service in the industry.

The pension system also has been recognized by Cliffwater LLC as one of the top 10 state pension plans in the U.S. based on an analysis of 10-year annualized investment returns. Cliffwater is an independent investment advisory firm.

“We are doing well in the market at the moment,” LeBlanc said.

The investment returns are going well across the board, whether handled in-house or by system money managers, LeBlanc said.

About 30 percent of the LASERS portfolio is handed in-house.

“It allows us to save money on fees that normally would be paid to money managers. We have the capability of handling some of those investments,” LeBlanc said.