Alaska

Alaska has two main public pension systems: the Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) and the Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS). Alaska’s Division of Retirement and Benefits (DRB) administers pension benefits but the Alaska Retirement Management Board (ARMB) oversees the investment of the funds.

• The ARMB represents all eligible public employees and its board consists of 9 members: 2 Ex Officio (Commissioner of Administration; Commissioner of Revenue); 2 trustees who are members of the general public; 1 trustee who is employed as a finance officer for a political subdivision participating in either the PERS or TRS system; 2 trustees who are members of PERS; 2 trustees who are members of TRS.
  • According to a 2023 report, the ARMB’s investment consultant is Callan.

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 the state’s proxy voting records for directly owned securities through pension fund portfolios. This data was obtained by a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request since Alaska does not publicly disclose this information to its pensioners. The 1792 Exchange encourages Alaska 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.