{"id":1136604,"date":"2026-08-07T21:38:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1136604\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:38:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:38:20","slug":"massachusetts-pension-fund-nears-130b-as-payouts-top-300k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1136604\/","title":{"rendered":"Massachusetts pension fund nears $130B, as payouts top $300K"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the fourth time in a row, the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management\u2019s main investment fund ended last fiscal year at another record level, swelling to $129.5 billion.<\/p>\n

Michael Trotsky, PRIM\u2019s executive director and chief investment officer, said this week that the Pension Reserves Investment Trust (PRIT) fund earned $14.7 billion (a return of 12.7%) and expanded on the high-water mark of $115.4 billion it set a year ago. After paying beneficiaries, the PRIT fund grew by $14.1 billion during fiscal 2026 to reach $129.5 billion as of June 30.<\/p>\n

He told the PRIM Investment Committee that it was the fund\u2019s strongest fiscal year return in five years and landed well above its 9% historical average.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the second consecutive fiscal year, all seven major asset classes posted positive returns \u2013 the first time in 20 years the Fund has produced back-to-back fiscal years with every major asset class positive. That combination has occurred only six times in the past two decades, and never in consecutive years until now,\u201d Trotsky said, according to remarks provided to the News Service. \u201cOur 12.7% net one-year return far exceeded our most important goal, the 7% actuarial rate of return, by a wide margin.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Trotsky celebrated that the fund beat the actuarial rate of return, meeting materials showed that the fund actually trailed its own investment benchmark in fiscal 2026. PRIM said the fund produced a 12.7% annualized return, which is 2.1 points below PRIM\u2019s total capital fund benchmark of 14.8% and 1.6 points below its net implementation benchmark of 14.4%, according to PRIM documents.<\/p>\n

The retirement funds of state employees, teachers and many municipal employees in Massachusetts are invested through PRIM and its PRIT fund. Officials have said there are more than 300,000 beneficiaries of the fund.<\/p>\n

Top pension earners<\/p>\n

The fund is needed for ever-growing retirement checks, with the Top 10 all big earners, according to state Comptroller records<\/a>.<\/p>\n

First is Thomas Manning, formerly of the UMass Medical School, who earns $349,906 a year in pension. He is tops after heading out in 2012 as deputy chancellor and ex-head of the University of Massachusetts Medical School\u2019s Commonwealth Medicine consulting division.<\/p>\n

Next is Vivian Budnik, also formerly of UMass Medical, at $341,805. In line behind that is Joyce Murphy, $341,061; Jacqueline Moloney, $340,382, both UMass Medical alums.<\/p>\n

Formerly from UMass Amherst, Derek Lovley, $313,087; John McCarthy, $293,165; William \u201cBilly\u201d Bulger, $274,539, the former UMass president long retired.<\/p>\n

Next, Michael Czech, $255,366, UMass Medical.<\/p>\n

Ex-UMass Amherst\u2019s James Kurose at $251,678 in pension.<\/p>\n

And, back to UMass Medical, Michele Pugnaire is paid $251,252 in retirement annually.<\/p>\n

State House News contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer state Senate President and UMass President William \u2018Billy\u2019 Bulger seen outside his Southie home enjoying his retirement a decade ago. (Herald file photo)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the fourth time in a row, the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management\u2019s main investment fund ended last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1136605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3093],"tags":[51,1700,2266,474,105,2843,120248,275,309063,12,2074,2499,285,16,15,172374],"class_list":["post-1136604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-finance","tag-health","tag-latest-headlines","tag-legislature","tag-massachusetts","tag-massachusetts-pensions","tag-news","tag-pension","tag-personal-finance","tag-politics","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-watchdog"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117056393813719402","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1136604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1136605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1136604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1136604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1136604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}