At the summer conference of the Maryland Government Finance Officers Association, MACo Executive Director and Trustee of MACo’s OPEB Investment Trust, joined Steven James from the Maryland Association of Boards of Education in discussing options available to government units to invest toward long-term retiree health liabilities.

OPEB (“other post-employment benefits” — mainly comprising health insurance coverage or subsidies for retirees, but not including pensions) are a substantial liability to most Maryland governments. Maryland law was recently changed to explicitly allow governments to invest funds toward these long term liabilities in the same manner as pension investments — but to do so, the funds must be placed in Trust and inaccessible by the host government for other uses.

Mr. James spoke about the benefits of the Investment Trust to its nine school board members. His Power Point presentation on the Trust details its growth, scope, investing philosophy, and returns to date.

Mr. Sanderson spoke about the MACo Trust, citing its availability to not only county governments but municipalities and county-funded entities like libraries, community colleges, and service districts.

For more coverage on MACo’s OPEB Trust, see Conduit Street’s announcement of its formation earlier this year.

For more information about MACo’s OPEB Trust, contact Executive Director Michael Sanderson at MACo.