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Louisiana

Louisiana has five main public pension funds: the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana (TRS), the Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System (LASERS), the Firefighters Retirement System of Louisiana (FRS), the Municipal Employees Retirement System of Louisiana (MERS), and the Louisiana State Police Retirement System (LSPRS). LASERS oversees

The TRSL board represents public teachers and consists of 17 members: 12 elected by TRSL members or retirees; 4 Ex Officio (State Superintendent of Education, State Treasurer, Chair of the Senate Retirement Committee, and Commissioner of the Division of Administration); 1 appointed by the House Speaker.
- According to its 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the TRSL’s general investment consultants are Aon Investments and Mercer.
The LASERS board represents all eligible state and local government employees; the board consists of 13 members: 4 Ex Officio (State Treasurer, Commissioner of Administration, Chair of the Louisiana Senate Retirement Committee, and a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives Retirement Committee appointed by the Speaker of the House); 6 elected by active members; 3 elected by retirees.
- According to its 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, LASERS’ general investment consultant is NEPC.
The FRS board represents firefighters of the state and consists of 11 members.
- According to its 2023 Comprehensive Annual Financial Statement, FRS’ general investment consultant is NEPC.
The MERS board represents municipal employees and consists of 11 members: 5 members elected by the MERS’ active membership; 1 retired member of MERS’ elected by the MERS’ retiree membership; 1 member of the House Retirement Committee appointed by the Speaker of the House; 4 Ex Officio (the President of the Louisiana Municipal Association (LMA), the Chairman of the Senate Retirement Committee, the State Treasurer, and the Commissioner of Administration).
- According to an August 2024 Performance Report, MERS’ general investment consultant is Meketa.
The LSPRS board consists of 11 members: 3 Ex Officio (State Treasurer, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Commissioner of the DOA); 8 members elected by LSPRS members and retirees to serve five-year, staggered terms.
- According to its 2024 Annual Report, the LSPRS’ general investment consultant is Meketa.

The “By Asset Manager” and “Asset Manager Voting” tables show the proxy voting records of the state’s asset managers who manage the pensions’ stock market portfolio through index, exchange-traded, or mutual funds. Since these are externally managed funds, the asset managers typically retain and exercise proxy voting privileges. This data is used to calculate the state’s pro-ESG and anti-ESG scores to see how the state leverages its externally managed funds in proxy voting.

The “State Voting” table shows LASERS’ proxy voting records for directly owned securities through pension fund portfolios. This data was obtained by a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request since Louisiana does not publicly disclose this information to its pensioners. The 1792 Exchange encourages Louisiana to publish its proxy voting records instead of keeping its pensioners in the dark about how the state votes on ESG issues with their money.

Both tables are important to show a comprehensive picture of the state’s proxy voting record.

By Asset Manager

BlackRock Funds