Teachers Retirement System of Georgia

TRS Georgia — est. 1943; $116.8bn net position YE2025; $130.5bn interim May 2026; ED Jason L. Branch; CIO Charles W. Cary Jr. Not Texas TRS.

UAO Editorial September 7, 2026 37 min read

Registry · Top 100 · U.S. public teachers’ pension · Georgia · last researched 7 September 2026

Corrections: info@universalassetowners.com

Executive brief

The Teachers Retirement System of Georgia (TRS, often styled TRS Georgia) is the statewide defined-benefit pension system for Georgia public-school teachers, many employees of the University System of Georgia, and other designated education-related public employees. It was established in 1943 by an act of the Georgia General Assembly and describes itself as the largest public retirement system in Georgia. Official site: trsga.com.

Critical disambiguation: TRS Georgia is not the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. Texas TRS was skipped in this elite series (site Imperva block). This profile’s slug is teachers-retirement-system-of-georgia. Do not mix Texas AUM, Texas board seats, or Texas leadership into Georgia figures.

As of the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for the fiscal year ended 30 June 2025, TRS reported net position restricted for pensions of $116.767912 billion (Statement of Fiduciary Net Position; dollars in thousands in the source tables). That is a $10.6 billion, or about 10%, increase from $106.174001 billion at 30 June 2024. The May 13, 2026 Board of Trustees minutes — published in HTML on the official board-meeting-minutes page — record that assets restricted for pensions were $130.5 billion, described as a 20% increase from April 2025, with year-to-date contributions of $3.9 billion and benefit payments of $5.7 billion through April 30, 2026. Prefer these dated official USD prints; do not invent AUM from INST soft estimates (~US$117 bn band in some secondary directories).

Investment performance for FY2025 (ACFR letter / MD&A): time-weighted return 12.2%, with equities about 14.4%, private equity 12.7%, and fixed income about 6.0%. Money-weighted return for the year ended 30 June 2025 was 10.1% (vs 11.5% for FY2024). The May 2026 board minutes cite an actuarial market-value investment rate of return of 12.1% for FY2025 purposes and a five-year smoothed return of 8.64% versus the 6.90% assumed rate, with the AVA-based funded ratio rising from 77.9% to 78.7%.

Executive Director is Dr. Jason L. Branch (Jason L. Branch), effective 1 November 2025 per the official 3 November 2025 news release. The live Leadership Team page (retrieved September 2026) still also lists L.C. (Buster) Evans, Ed.D. under an Executive Director heading — treat that as a stale dual listing relative to the Branch appointment news; the FY2025 ACFR letter (26 September 2025) was signed by Evans while Branch appears as Board Vice-Chair as of 30 June 2025. Chief Investment Officer Charles W. Cary, Jr. is published on the live Leadership Team page. INST soft fields may leave CIO empty — do not invent a CIO from INST; use the official published title. Board Chair: Deborah K. Simonds (re-elected May 2026).

Researchers care about TRS Georgia because it is a large U.S. state teachers’ DB plan with a long public reporting stack (ACFR, actuarial valuations, bimonthly board minutes), a liquid-heavy public-markets allocation, and a clear statutory mandate under Title 47 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated. Related UAO hubs: Registry institutions, Careers Intelligence, and person SSR for Jason L. Branch.

Speakable summary: Teachers Retirement System of Georgia — est. 1943; official net position $116.8 bn at 30 Jun 2025; interim assets restricted $130.5 bn in May 2026 board minutes; FY2025 time-weighted return 12.2%; Executive Director Dr. Jason L. Branch; CIO Charles W. Cary, Jr. (official Leadership Team); not Texas TRS.

Mandate & ownership

TRS administers the fund from which teachers in Georgia’s public schools, many University System of Georgia employees, and certain other designated employees in educational-related work environments receive retirement benefits (About TRS). Benefits are administered and paid in accordance with laws enacted by the Georgia Legislature. Title 47 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated assigns authority to establish and amend System provisions to the State Legislature (ACFR notes).

What the mandate is

  • A defined benefit retirement plan structured as a 401(a) arrangement: the retirement benefit is defined by formula, and TRS — not the member — assumes investment risk for the plan assets that back benefits (About TRS; Retirement Plans Offered).
  • Normal service retirement eligibility after 30 years of creditable service regardless of age, or after 10 years of service and attainment of age 60; early retirement after 25 years (ACFR notes / plan summary).
  • Normal retirement benefits equal to 2% of the average of the member’s two highest paid consecutive years (highest 24 consecutive months in member-facing plan language) of service, multiplied by years of creditable service up to 40 years (ACFR notes; Plans page).
  • Members become fully vested after 10 years of service; terminating members with less than 10 years may receive a refund of member contributions with interest, with no vesting of employer contributions (ACFR notes).
  • Member contribution rate 6.00% of compensation (valuation / May 2026 board adoption for FY2028).
  • Employer actuarially determined contribution rates set periodically by the Board; FY2025 required employer rate was 20.78% (up from 19.98% in FY2024 per MD&A); the Board on 13 May 2026 adopted FY2028 employer 22.32% and employee 6.00% per the June 30, 2025 valuation.

What the mandate is not

  • Not a member-directed DC account such as a typical 401(k) or IRA: About TRS states that, unlike an IRA or 401(k), a TRS retirement benefit is not impacted by stock market performance from the member’s perspective, and that the State of Georgia guarantees TRS members will receive retirement income for life under the plan design (member-facing language — benefit security is a statutory/plan construct, not a claim about funded status).
  • Not the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, CalSTRS, or any other state’s teachers’ system — Georgia statute and Atlanta-based administration only.
  • Not a sovereign wealth fund or endowment; it is a public employee pension trust for education-sector participants.

Mission, vision, values (official)

Mission (Mission and Vision page): to provide pension education, safeguard plan investments, and efficiently administer retirement benefits. Vision: to be the premier retirement system providing exceptional and comprehensive service. Core values: act with integrity and honesty; serve internal and external customers with excellence; demonstrate commitment to continuous improvement.

Plan A / Plan B / PLOP

Under the defined benefit plan, members choose at retirement between Plan A (benefit to the member) and Plan B options that provide survivor benefits to beneficiaries, and may elect or decline a Partial Lump-Sum Option Plan (PLOP) that trades a cash payment for a reduced lifetime benefit (Retirement Plans Offered). Once monthly benefits begin, the plan of retirement generally cannot be changed except under limited statutory conditions. If a member dies within 30 days of the effective retirement date, Georgia law treats the member as active at death for settlement purposes.

Scale & portfolio

Fiduciary net position and interim assets (official USD)

ACFR FY2025 Statement of Fiduciary Net Position (dollars in thousands in source): Net Position Restricted for Pensions $116,767,912 thousand — i.e. about $116.8 billion — at 30 June 2025, versus $106,174,001 thousand at 30 June 2024. Cash and cash equivalents were reported at about $2.064 billion. Private equity fair value was about $1.148 billion at YE2025 (from $743 million prior year).

May 13, 2026 Board minutes (Item 3, CFO Laura L. Lanier): assets restricted for pensions $130.5 billion (20% increase from April 2025); YTD contributions $3.9 billion and benefit payments $5.7 billion as of April 30, 2026. Treat $130.5 billion as an official interim board-reported figure, not a substitute for the audited YE2025 net position.

Membership and benefit payroll

  • ACFR statistical / MD&A context: active membership about 242,241 in FY2025 (from 240,562); retired members about 155,826 (from 151,881); average monthly benefit about $3,478 (from $3,415).
  • CavMac valuation as of 30 June 2025: 242,260 active members; annual earnable compensation about $16.324 billion; 155,945 retired members and beneficiaries; annual allowances about $6.592 billion.
  • About TRS: manages retirement accounts of over 500,000 members (active, retired, survivors); retiree payroll in excess of $5 billion per year.
  • May 13, 2026 operational update: May 1, 2026 benefit payroll — 140,593 service retirees; average monthly benefit $3,738; monthly total benefit payroll $565.8 million; average retirement age 60; maximum plan elected by 56% of members.

Asset allocation at 30 June 2025 (ACFR percentages)

Class30 Jun 202530 Jun 2024
Domestic equities57.5%59.3%
International equities17.4%16.6%
Private equity1.0%0.7%
U.S. treasuries17.9%16.8%
Domestic corporate & other bonds5.9%6.2%
International corporate bonds0.3%0.4%
Real estate——

Dollar fair values (ACFR, thousands): domestic equities about $65.589 billion; international equities about $19.843 billion; private equity about $1.148 billion; U.S. treasuries about $20.338 billion; domestic corporate and other bonds about $6.731 billion; international corporates about $0.389 billion. Total investment portfolio increased about $11.8 billion over the year (MD&A).

Policy ranges and organisation scale

Notes to the financial statements summarize the System’s adopted asset allocation policy as of 30 June 2025 with equities in a 55%–75% range and alternative investments 0%–5% (total 100%). The Financial Services Division and Division of Investment Services are cited in the ACFR introductory materials as employing accounting and investment practices supporting long-term sustainability. Public contact address in ACFR requests-for-information: Teachers Retirement System of Georgia, Two Northside 75, Suite 100, Atlanta, GA 30318. (Public pages — omit private staff emails/phones.)

Top1000funds secondary snapshot (not a primary AUM source) echoed a similar public-markets-heavy mix and listed Jason L Branch as chief executive and Charles W. Cary Jr. as CIO with AUM ~$117 billion — consistent with YE2025 order of magnitude but subordinate to ACFR/minutes USD.

Governance & leadership

Board of Trustees structure

A Board of Trustees administers TRS. State statutes provide that administration is vested in a ten-member Board comprised as follows (Governance page): two ex-officio members (State Auditor; State Treasurer); trustee appointees including one member who has retired under the System and one citizen of the state who is not a member of the System and is experienced in the investment of money; Governor’s appointees including two active classroom teachers not employed by the Board of Regents, one active public school administrator, one active member not employed by the Board of Regents, and one member-at-large; and a Board of Regents appointee who is an active System member employed by the Board of Regents. The Board appoints the Executive Director.

Board roster notes (live / ACFR YE2025)

  • Chair: Ms. Deborah K. Simonds (retired teacher) — live Board page; re-elected Chair at the May 13, 2026 annual meeting (minutes Item 9.1). Term expiration cited on live page: 6/30/2027.
  • Vice-Chair (as of May 2026 election): Mr. Kenneth Dyer (school administrator) — re-elected Vice-Chair (minutes Item 9.2). At ACFR as of 30 June 2025, Dr. Jason L. Branch was listed as Vice-Chair with term ended 6/30/2025 before his Executive Director appointment.
  • Other live Board names (Board of Trustees page, retrieved Sep 2026): Dr. Mary Elizabeth Davis; Mr. Christopher A. McGraw; Mr. Greg S. Griffin (State Auditor, ex officio); Mr. Steve / Steven N. McCoy (State Treasurer, ex officio); Ms. Miriam Shook; Dr. William G. Sloan Jr. (member-at-large).
  • ACFR YE2025 board listing also included Mr. Christopher M. Swanson (classroom teacher) and Mr. Thomas W. Norwood (investment professional). May 2026 minutes: Norwood resigned effective 10 December 2025; Board appointed Mr. Douglas R. Aldridge, Jr. as trustee with investment expertise effective 1 July 2026.
  • Investment Committee elected May 2026 (minutes Item 9.3): Aldridge, Dyer, Griffin, McGraw, Simonds, and Sloan.

Executive leadership

  • Executive Director — Dr. Jason L. Branch (Jason L. Branch). Official news (3 Nov 2025): appointment effective 1 November 2025. Prior roles cited in that release include Superintendent of Oconee County School System (~13 years), high-school principalships, University of Georgia bachelor’s/master’s degrees, specialist and Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from The University of Southern Mississippi, Leadership Georgia 2017, President of the Georgia School Superintendents Association, board roles with Georgia Association of Educators and AASA, and prior service on the TRS Board as Vice-Chairman and on Investment and Joint Management Committees; most recent prior staff role Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer.
  • Leadership Team page dual listing: L.C. (Buster) Evans, Ed.D., still appears with an Executive Director label alongside Branch on the live Leadership Team page (Sep 2026 retrieve). ACFR FY2025 letter of transmittal (26 Sep 2025) is signed by Evans. Report Branch as current ED from the appointment release and May 2026 minutes staff line; flag Evans as predecessor / stale web listing — do not invent a co-ED arrangement.
  • Chief Investment Officer — Charles W. Cary, Jr. Title published on the live Leadership Team page. INST soft CIO field may be empty; that emptiness is not license to invent a different CIO, nor to erase the official published title. May 13, 2026 minutes staff attendance list does not name Cary among present staff — do not invent a departure from that absence alone.
  • Chief Financial Officer / Deputy Executive Director — Laura L. Lanier (Leadership Team; presents financials in board minutes).
  • Other Leadership Team titles as published: Winston Buckley — Director, Communications and Outreach; R. Cory Buice — Director, Retirement Services; K. Paige Donaldson — Director, Employer Services and Contact Management; Mike Jackson — Controller, Financial Services; Dina N. Jones — Director, Member Services; Sonya Kinley — Chief Human Resources Officer; Tom McMurry — Chief Information Officer (information security / digital identity — not the investment CIO).

UAO person SSR live for Jason L. Branch: Jason L. Branch. As of ship date, no live person SSR was found for Charles W. Cary, Jr., Deborah K. Simonds, or Laura L. Lanier — mention them by published title without inventing person pages.

Investment philosophy / strategy

ACFR introductory and investment-section language emphasizes guiding principles of “Conservation of Capital” and “Conservatism” for investment decisions, with a diversified portfolio to accomplish those objectives. Management notes that when necessary, actions are taken to adjust the assumed annual rate of return on future investments to prepare for market conditions. Studies cited in the investment narrative argue that asset allocation has the largest long-horizon impact on returns; equities have historically outperformed fixed income and cash over long periods (example given: ten-year returns for equities 13.2% vs bonds 1.9% in the ACFR investment discussion), which is why the System has generally maintained significant equity exposure with the remainder in fixed income securities designed to generate income and preserve capital.

Returns are calculated using a Daily Valuation Method, a time-weighted rate of return, in a manner described as consistent with CFA Institute Global Investment Performance Standards objectives (Investment Section). Private equity is reported as a distinct sleeve with a noted inception-date context in performance commentary. Real estate shows as a dash (no allocation) at YE2025 in the ACFR allocation table.

Asset-class playbook (as published)

  • Public equities (domestic + international): Dominant share of the portfolio (~75% combined at YE2025). FY2025 equities return about 14.4% time-weighted.
  • Fixed income / U.S. Treasuries and corporates: Capital-preservation and income sleeve; Treasuries alone ~17.9% at YE2025; FY2025 fixed income return about 6.0%.
  • Private equity / alternatives: Small but growing sleeve (1.0% at YE2025; policy alternatives 0%–5%). FY2025 private equity return about 12.7%. Alternative Investments Annual Update PDF on Publications is dated 2022 — treat as historical, not current policy statement.
  • Real estate: No YE2025 allocation printed in the ACFR percentage table.

Homepage / related-news teaser language references commitment to prudent investment strategies, disciplined risk management, and sound governance, and points readers to strategic improvements, goals, and sustainability changes — fold only what is explicitly published; do not invent ESG metric scores.

Climate / ESG / ethics

TRS Georgia’s public web stack, as retrieved for this profile, does not present a standalone climate-transition report or PRI-style RI annual comparable to some European peers. Stewardship and ethics content that is primary-sourced for this draft is therefore limited to: (1) fiduciary “Conservation of Capital” / “Conservatism” investment language in the ACFR; (2) governance and internal-control discussion in the letter of transmittal; (3) member-facing cybersecurity and identity-protection communications (e.g., podcast featuring CIO of Information Tom McMurry on Zero Trust / MFA — IT security, not portfolio ESG); and (4) homepage teaser copy on prudent strategies, risk management, sound governance, and “sustainability changes” without a downloadable metrics annex folded here.

Honest omission: no invented exclusion lists, financed-emissions totals, or proxy-voting tallies. If TRS later publishes a dedicated RI/climate PDF on trsga.com/publications, that would be a non-blocking expansion. Secondary GSR/Global SWF-style sustainability scores are editorial composites — not official TRS filings — and are not used as fact claims here.

Performance & reporting

FY2025 headline returns (ACFR)

  • Time-weighted total fund: 12.2% (letter cites strong equity return; prior year context 14.5% investment return in MD&A comparison language).
  • Equities: about 14.4%; private equity: about 12.7%; fixed income: about 6.0%.
  • Money-weighted rate of return FY2025: 10.1% (FY2024: 11.5%).
  • Net investment income: about $12.716 billion (from about $13.435 billion prior year).
  • Member contributions: about $1.031 billion (+6.5%); employer contributions: about $3.465 billion (+11.0%); benefit payments rose with retiree counts and 1.50% postretirement increases given in July 2024 and January 2025 (MD&A).

Actuarial valuation as of 30 June 2025 (CavMac; Board accepted 13 May 2026)

  • Discount / assumed rate: 6.90%.
  • Fair value of assets: $116.767912 billion; actuarial value: $110.505732 billion.
  • Unfunded actuarial accrued liability: $29.923869 billion; blended amortization period 19.2 years (from 20.6).
  • Funded ratio on AVA: 78.7% (from 77.9%).
  • ADEC for FY ending 30 June 2028: normal 8.81% (incl. 0.15% admin) + UAAL 13.51% = 22.32% employer; member 6.00% — adopted by Board May 2026.
  • Actuary opinion language: System operating on an actuarially sound basis assuming contributions continue at recommended rates; funded on an actuarial reserve basis using entry age normal cost method.

Transparency stack

  • Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (FY2025 Protected PDF on Publications; GFOA Certificate of Achievement for 38th consecutive year — news 14 May 2026 quoting Executive Director Branch).
  • Annual actuarial valuations (June 30, 2025 FINAL on Publications).
  • GASB 68 audit reports library for employers.
  • Bimonthly Board of Trustees meeting minutes (open-session HTML + PDF archive).
  • Members Guide; earnable compensation / benefit limitation letters; SB 150 FAQs.
  • Independent audit: KPMG LLP selected by the Board (ACFR introductory references).

Controversies & debates

Official attributable items first. Fold only what appears in primary TRS materials or clearly labeled secondary legislative coverage:

  • Senate Bill 150 (Teacher Return to Work) — homepage banners and Publications FAQ PDF mark important details effective 1 July 2026. This is a legislative/plan-administration change for return-to-work rules affecting local school systems; report as published without inventing political narratives.
  • Funded status trajectory — AVA funded ratio 78.7% with UAAL about $29.9 billion (valuation). Official actuary language still describes actuarially sound operation if contributions continue as recommended; debates about public-plan funded ratios are industry-wide and should cite the official 78.7% / 6.90% assumption rather than invented crisis framing.
  • Leadership transition — Branch appointment (Nov 2025) after Evans’s ACFR-era directorship; dual ED listing on Leadership Team page is a documentation inconsistency to note, not a scandal invented here.
  • Investment professional trustee vacancy — Norwood resignation (10 Dec 2025) and Aldridge appointment effective 1 Jul 2026 are board-minute facts.

Secondary press (e.g., legislative session blogs summarizing July 2026 meetings) may cite interim net position figures; prefer the official minutes HTML for $130.5 billion and label any non-TRS domain as secondary.

Timeline

  • 1943 — Teachers Retirement System of Georgia established by act of the Georgia General Assembly (History page). Purpose: administer the retirement fund to provide members and beneficiaries income at retirement or upon disability or death.
  • Ongoing — Ten-member Board under Georgia statutes; Division of Investment Services / Financial Services stewardship language in ACFR.
  • 30 Jun 2024 — Net position restricted for pensions $106.174 billion (ACFR comparative).
  • FY2025 — Employer contribution rate 20.78%; time-weighted return 12.2%; net position rises to $116.768 billion at year-end.
  • 26 Sep 2025 — ACFR FY2025 letter of transmittal signed by L.C. (Buster) Evans, Ed.D.
  • 1 Nov 2025 — Dr. Jason L. Branch becomes Executive Director (news 3 Nov 2025).
  • 10 Dec 2025 — Trustee Thomas W. Norwood resigns (May 2026 minutes).
  • 14 May 2026 — GFOA Certificate announced for 38th consecutive year (ACFR FY2025).
  • 13 May 2026 — Board accepts 30 Jun 2025 valuation; adopts FY2028 rates 22.32% / 6.00%; reports $130.5 billion assets restricted; re-elects Simonds Chair and Dyer Vice-Chair; elects Investment Committee; approves Aldridge appointment effective 1 Jul 2026.
  • 1 Jul 2026 — SB 150 Teacher Return to Work effective (site banners); Aldridge trustee term begins per minutes.
  • 23 Sep 2026 — Board of Trustees & Investment Committee meetings noted on homepage calendar (as retrieved).

Depth annexes

A. Long-run return framing (ACFR Investment Section)

The Investment Section presents one-, three-, five-, ten-, twenty-, and thirty-year rates of return for equities and fixed income versus relevant indexes (equities index / international index; U.S. Govt/Credit; 1-month T-bills). Longer periods are emphasized to reduce short-term market volatility noise. Example equity multi-period table extracts from ACFR (equities column): 1-year 14.43%; 3-year 16.78%; 5-year 14.19%; 10-year 11.12%; 20-year 9.12%; 30-year 9.36% (paired with index columns in the source). Fixed income 1-year about 5.98% versus U.S. Govt/Credit about 5.36% and T-bills about 4.80% in the printed comparison. Use these as ACFR-printed figures; do not restate as UAO-calculated performance.

B. Contribution and cash-flow mechanics

MD&A explains that the System accumulates resources through member, employer, and nonemployer contributions plus investment income. FY2025 saw higher member contributions (+$63.0 million, +6.5%) from membership salary growth and more actives, and higher employer contributions (+$343.1 million, +11.0%) from salaries, headcount, and the rate increase to 20.78%. Deductions rose about $276.5 million (+4.4%), primarily benefit payments (+$280.0 million, +4.5%) as retiree/beneficiary counts and postretirement adjustments increased. Refunds of member contributions and administrative expenses are smaller deduction lines (administrative expenses net about $21.4 million in FY2025).

C. Funding policy and assumptions snapshot

Funding policy provides for employee and employer contributions as percentages of annual covered payroll sufficient to pay benefits when due. Useful funded-status indicator: actuarial value of assets versus actuarial accrued liabilities (ACFR letter). Valuation assumes investment return 6.90% net of pension plan investment expense including inflation; post-retirement benefit increases 1.50% semi-annually in assumption tables cited in ACFR actuarial materials; salary increase ranges appear in assumption schedules (e.g., 3.00%–8.75% including inflation in extracted note text). Mortality tables and other demographic assumptions are detailed in the Actuarial Section — fold by reference to the PDF rather than inventing table cells not transcribed here.

D. Operational service metrics (May 2026 minutes)

Branch’s operational update: Financial Services’ 38th GFOA certificate; Communications and Outreach completed 38 workshops, 4 retiree events, and 3 beneficiary events; Contact Management Call Center processed 22,557 calls in March and 16,422 in April; Member Services Outreach visited 7 RESA regions and attended 24 events with 552 attendees. Expense fund YTD: with 83.3% of the year completed, 70.2% of budgeted funds expended — Board approved the expense fund unanimously.

E. FY2027 salary-limit parameters (May 2026)

Per O.C.G.A. § 47-3-120(d) and data from Board of Regents / Department of Education, Branch recommended — and the Board adopted — maximum percentage salary increases allowable for the two-year salary calculation for FY2027: Employees of the Board of Regents 2.50% (0.00% + 2.50%); All Others 4.86% (2.36% + 2.50%). Separate Publications letters cover annual earnable compensation and benefit limitations under IRC for FY26/CY25 and FY27/CY26.

F. Entity map and peers

TRS Georgia is the asset owner and plan administrator. Investments are overseen through Board / Investment Committee governance with internal Division of Investment Services (ACFR). External managers appear in ACFR organizational/investment listings (e.g., names such as Barrow, Hanley, Mewhinney & Strauss appear in introductory materials) — cite only as printed directory facts, not as an exhaustive mandate map. Peer UAO institution pages for context (different states/mandates): Virginia Retirement System, OPERS, Florida SBA, CalSTRS — none of which share Georgia TRS assets.

G. Disambiguation annex — Georgia vs Texas

Texas TRS (Teacher Retirement System of Texas) is a separate statutory system with a different official domain, board, AUM scale, and leadership. This elite series skipped Texas TRS after Imperva blocked reliable primary harvesting. Any INST card that collapses “TRS” without a state qualifier is unsafe for AUM or CIO fields. Always prefer trsga.com + Georgia ACFR language for this profile.

H. Outbound report checklist for analysts

  • Download TRS_ACFR2025_Protected.pdf from Publications — fiduciary net position, MD&A, investment section, actuarial schedules.
  • Download GA TRS 6-30-2025 Valuation Report — FINAL — ADEC, funded ratio, membership.
  • Read May 13, 2026 minutes on the board-meeting-minutes page for interim $130.5 billion and rate adoption.
  • Confirm Leadership Team + Branch news for ED/CIO titles before citing people.
  • Check SB 150 FAQ PDF for return-to-work rules effective 1 Jul 2026.
  • Do not use Texas TRS materials.

Annex — member economy & communications

About TRS stresses that the defined benefit design relieves members of making investment decisions and bearing investment risk for their retirement benefit formula, while TRS assumes that risk at the plan level. Depending on the plan of retirement chosen, benefits may pass to a beneficiary for life. This member-security framing is distinct from the plan’s funded-ratio mathematics (78.7% AVA) and should not be conflated.

Economic Impact page positions teacher pensions as contributing positively to Georgia’s local economy and references a brochure on how TRS retirees contribute to state economic success; a “Play Video” widget is present but no stable public embed ID was extractable from static HTML for VideoObject purposes. Residency Maps tools on the site visualize where members and retirees live — useful for economic-geography research, not for AUM.

Newsroom / multimedia: TRS publishes news releases (Branch appointment; GFOA certificate), podcasts (Your Retirement in Focus — e.g., digital security with Tom McMurry), and TRS Talks videos (e.g., 2026 Social Security updates with Cindy Lundquist on the homepage). These are member-education channels. Official YouTube channel ID observed in site footers: UCdQHR__UTfknu9XAjNWsc5g — channel-level only for schema.

Homepage also flags FY2027 salary limits & FY2028 contribution rates set by the Board, MFA enrollment prompts for online accounts, and the September 23, 2026 Board of Trustees & Investment Committee meetings — operational calendar facts for researchers tracking governance cadence (six board meetings a year per minutes page intro).

Legal process: Designees for Service of Process page exists under About Us for civil process routing — governance hygiene, not investment policy.

Experience studies: Publications host a June 30, 2023 five-year experience investigation and a 2018 five-year experience study — demographic/assumption calibration inputs for valuations. Use them when modeling liability sensitivity; they do not replace the 2025 valuation’s 6.90% return assumption.

Employer ecosystem: GASB 68 audit reports are published by fiscal year for participating employers’ financial reporting. About/Plans content notes IRS and Georgia law limits on earnable compensation, salary increases, and benefits — see annual limitation letters rather than inventing IRC section numbers beyond what Publications label.

Annex — FY2025 financial statement highlights

Statement of Changes in Fiduciary Net Position (ACFR) shows how net position moved from beginning $106.174 billion to ending $116.768 billion. Additions were dominated by net investment income (~$12.7 billion) plus employer (~$3.46 billion), member (~$1.03 billion), and smaller nonemployer contributions. Deductions were dominated by benefits, with refunds and administrative expenses comparatively small. The MD&A attributes the $10.6 billion net position increase primarily to positive equity market returns.

Receivables lines on the Statement of Fiduciary Net Position include interest and dividends, contributions, and other receivables typical of a large public plan. Investments are reported at fair value. Deferred outflows/inflows of resources appear in the GASB-aligned presentation. Readers should use the audited statements PDF for line-item precision rather than this narrative paraphrase.

Required supplementary information includes the Schedule of Investment Returns (money-weighted), schedules of the System’s proportionate share of net pension / OPEB liabilities as an employer in ERS and related State OPEB programs, and contribution schedules — TRS staff participate in other Georgia benefit plans even while TRS administers the teachers’ plan.

Investment expenses and administrative expense schedules in the ACFR provide transparency on costs of managing the portfolio and running the agency. May 2026 minutes’ expense-fund approval complements the annual schedules with an intra-year budget burn rate (70.2% spent at 83.3% of year elapsed).

Custodial and control language in the letter of transmittal discusses internal accounting controls aimed at safeguarding assets, authorizing transactions, and enabling GAAP financial statements, with the concept of reasonable assurance (cost of control vs benefits). Independent audit opinion from KPMG is included in the Financial Section.

Portfolio detail statistics and manager directories in the Investment Section support look-through research; private equity commitment pacing is visible in the rise from $743 million to $1.148 billion fair value YE2024→YE2025. International equity share also rose (16.6%→17.4%) while domestic equity share eased (59.3%→57.5%).

For cross-year context, Public Plans Database secondary series (not a TRS primary) shows a multi-decade climb in Georgia Teachers net assets into the $100 billion+ range by the mid-2020s — useful for charts only when labeled secondary and reconciled to ACFR YE figures.

Annex — ACFR letter themes

The September 26, 2025 letter of transmittal accompanying the FY2025 ACFR presents the report to the Board and plan members, assigns responsibility for accuracy and completeness to management, and points readers to Management’s Discussion and Analysis for an overview of fiduciary net position, changes in net position, and investment allocation. It describes internal control objectives (safeguard assets; authorize transactions; support GAAP statements) under a reasonable-assurance standard.

Funding discussion in the letter ties contribution policy to resources sufficient to pay benefits when due and highlights the relationship between actuarial assets and actuarial accrued liabilities as a funded-status indicator. The letter states the System has been and will continue to be funded on an actuarially sound basis when contribution policy is followed — language to quote as management/actuary framing, not as an independent UAO rating.

Operational priorities mentioned alongside financial results include member online-account adoption, beneficiary designation campaigns, and identity-fraud awareness — consistent with later member-security communications featuring the Chief Information Officer. Estate-planning and safeguarding-assets messaging appears in the same member-outreach vein.

Organizational chart materials in the introductory section list Board officers as of June 30, 2025 (Simonds Chair; Branch Vice-Chair) and senior staff including Evans, Lanier, Branch (then in board/officer capacity as printed), Cary, Buice, Donaldson, Buckley, and others. Use the chart as a YE2025 snapshot that predates Branch’s November 1, 2025 Executive Director effective date.

Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting from GFOA is reproduced/referenced for the prior year’s report in the introductory package; the May 2026 news release then confirms the FY2025 ACFR earned the award for the 38th consecutive year under Branch’s quoted stewardship statement.

Annex — valuation membership & contributions

The May 13, 2026 cover letters from CavMac to Executive Director Dr. Jason Branch and to the Board transmit twenty bound copies of the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia Actuarial Valuation Report prepared as of June 30, 2025, and state that employer contributions at 22.32% of compensation for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2028 are sufficient to support System benefits, reflecting amendments through the 2025 General Assembly session.

Section 47-3-23 of the law governing TRS requires the actuary to make annual valuations of contingent assets and liabilities on the basis of regular interest and tables last adopted by the Board. CavMac certifies completeness/accuracy and reasonableness of methodology and assumptions, notes reliance on System-provided data with consistency tests (not source verification), and affirms ASOPs compliance for funding and financial reporting parameters.

Funding objective: contribution rates remaining level as a percent of payroll over time. Method: entry age normal; normal contribution as level percent of payroll; gains/losses in UAAL amortized as level percent of payroll per Board funding policy. The System is described as funded in conformity with the minimum funding standard in Code Section 47-20-10 of the Public Retirement Systems Standards Law.

Principal results comparison (valuation, dollars in thousands): active members 242,260 vs 240,561; earnable compensation $16,324,339 vs $15,352,507; retired members and beneficiaries 155,945 vs 151,924; annual allowances $6,592,127 vs $6,297,139. Fair value assets $116,767,912 vs $106,174,001; actuarial value $110,505,732 vs $103,756,747.

May 2026 minutes summarize FY2025 actuarial highlights for the Board: market-value investment rate of return 12.1% for actuarial purposes; five-year smoothing 8.64% above 6.90% assumed; funded ratio AVA 77.9%→78.7%; about 0.7% increase in active membership and 5.6% increase in average payroll — complementary to ACFR’s 12.2% time-weighted total-fund print.

Annex — board cadence & committees

The board-meeting-minutes page states the Board meets six times a year at the TRS office in Atlanta, with open-session minutes provided. The May 13, 2026 annual meeting mixed in-person and Zoom attendance. Trustees present in person included Simonds, Davis, Dyer, and Sloan; Zoom participants included McCoy, McGraw, Shook, and Swanson. Legal counsel Caleb Grant and Shelley Seinberg attended; CavMac’s Ed Koebel and Micki Taylor were among visitors.

Committee assignments for FY2027 were adopted as presented by the Chair (minutes Item 10). Investment Committee membership after the May election explicitly includes the newly designated investment-expertise trustee Aldridge alongside Dyer, Griffin, McGraw, Simonds, and Sloan — reinforcing the statutory seat for a citizen experienced in investing money who is not a System member.

FY2027 salary-limit action under O.C.G.A. § 47-3-120(d) shows how Board policy interfaces with Board of Regents and Department of Education compensation data to cap salary spikes entering the two-year final-average calculation — a classic teachers’-plan anti-spiking control published in the minutes tables (2.50% Regents; 4.86% all others for FY2027).

Live Board biographies (Board of Trustees page) provide role context without replacing statute: Simonds as retired special-education teacher and Board Chair; Dyer as Dougherty County superintendent selected in February 2017; McGraw as Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs, University System of Georgia; Griffin as State Auditor appointed by Governor Nathan Deal; McCoy as State Treasurer and cash-management officer for the State Depository Board; Shook as instructional technology specialist; Sloan as Executive Director of the Georgia Retired Educators Association since 2005. Term expirations on the live page should be checked before citing seats as current.

Annex — benefit design detail

ACFR notes summarize normal retirement benefits as 2% of the average of the member’s two highest paid consecutive years of service multiplied by years of creditable service up to 40. Early retirement benefits are reduced by the lesser of one-twelfth of 7% for each month the member is below age 60 or by 7% for each year or fraction thereof by which the member has less than 30 years of service. Cost-of-living adjustments based on the Consumer Price Index may be assumed in future years in actuarial modeling; ACFR MD&A specifically notes 1.50% postretirement benefit increases in July 2024 and January 2025.

Optional forms: a member may elect a reduced retirement allowance to provide continuing benefits to a beneficiary; if the beneficiary predeceases the retiree, certain options restore or adjust the member’s benefit on an actuarial-equivalent basis (plan notes). Plan A vs Plan B member-facing materials on trsga.com explain maximum member-only benefits versus survivor options, including pop-up variants and Option 4 structures linked from the Plans hub.

Partial Lump-Sum Option Plan (PLOP) allows a cash payment at retirement in exchange for a permanently reduced annuity. Estimates are available via Pension Calculator, online account tools within five years of retirement, counseling appointments, or office-requested estimates. Application timing matters: plan election on the retirement application is generally locked once benefits commence, subject to limited change conditions.

Disability and survivor protections while active are part of the defined-benefit package described on About/Plans pages. Death-in-service settlement follows beneficiary designations; the 30-day post-effective-date rule treats certain early post-retirement deaths as active deaths under Georgia law.

Contribution sharing: members 6.00%; employers pay the ADEC (20.78% in FY2025 operations; 22.32% adopted for FY2028). Nonemployer contributions appear as a smaller ACFR additions line. This shared-cost structure is central to Georgia’s public education compensation package and to local employer budgeting.

Annex — investment process notes

ACFR investment narrative stresses quality as a primary goal and continuity of Conservation of Capital / Conservatism principles. Diversification across liquid public equities and fixed income is the structural answer to those principles, with a measured alternatives sleeve inside a 0%–5% policy band. The Division of Investment Services prepares investment section content referenced in the ACFR.

Performance presentation distinguishes time-weighted returns (preferred for comparing managers/markets independent of external cash-flow timing) from money-weighted returns (sensitive to contribution and benefit cash-flow timing). For an open public plan with large monthly benefit outflows, the money-weighted figure (10.1% FY2025) can diverge from the time-weighted 12.2% — both are official; state which metric you cite.

Macro context in MD&A notes uneven but solid U.S. real GDP averaging about 2.3% annualized over the fiscal year (down from 3.1% prior), giving the Federal Reserve room to cut interest rates — framed as backdrop to fixed-income and equity results, not as TRS macro forecasting.

Target allocation and arithmetic real-return assumptions by major asset class appear in a notes table (Target Allocation & Estimated Rates of Return) supporting GASB discount-rate / long-term expected return analysis — use the PDF table for precise basis-point assumptions rather than inventing expected-return inputs.

Securities are held by agent custodial banks in the name of the System; deposits insured by FDIC are referenced in control narratives. Fair-value measurement disclosures follow GASB investment hierarchy standards in the notes.

Compared with peers that run large private-markets programs (e.g., some Canadian or larger U.S. plans on the UAO registry), TRS Georgia’s YE2025 mix remains notably public-equity- and Treasury-heavy with only ~1% private equity — a structural characteristic for allocator peer analysis, sourced directly from the ACFR allocation table.

Annex — risk, audit, and employer reporting

Notes warn that due to the level of risk associated with certain investment securities, it is reasonably possible that near-term fair-value changes could materially affect amounts reported — standard public-plan market-risk language. Liquidity risk is mitigated in practice by the large public-markets sleeve, though that is an analytical inference layered on the printed allocation rather than a TRS quote.

TRS as employer participates in Employees’ Retirement System of Georgia (ERS) and related OPEB programs for its own staff; RSI schedules present proportionate net pension/OPEB liabilities and contributions — relevant to TRS’s own financial statements but distinct from the teachers’ plan fiduciary net position.

GASB 68 reports library gives participating education employers the allocation data needed for their financial statements — a key transparency artifact for Georgia school systems and USG units. Employers also receive contribution-rate and salary-limit communications tied to Board actions.

Independent audit opinion covers the Statement of Fiduciary Net Position and Statement of Changes in Fiduciary Net Position. Introductory materials note KPMG LLP’s selection by the Board. GFOA’s Certificate criteria emphasize technical accuracy plus clear presentation — TRS’s 38-year streak is an official process quality signal, not an investment-performance award.

Privacy, confidentiality, accessibility, and human-trafficking-notice links in the site footer reflect public-agency web compliance. Contact Us and Notification of Death workflows are member-service channels; this profile intentionally omits phone numbers and private emails.

Annex — sourcing method & honesty rules

This elite profile folds opened primaries only. Prefer official USD from trsga.com and the FY2025 ACFR / 2025 valuation / May 2026 board minutes. Do not invent people, titles, AUM, or board seats. When INST soft fields disagree with live official pages (for example an empty CIO field versus Charles W. Cary, Jr. published as CIO), prefer the official page and document the discrepancy.

Currency discipline: Georgia TRS reports in U.S. dollars — use USD. Do not convert or invent FX. Interim $130.5 billion (May 2026 minutes) and audited $116.8 billion net position (30 Jun 2025) are different as-of dates; always keep dates attached.

Leadership honesty checklist used for this ship: Branch = ED from official news + minutes; Evans = ACFR letter signer / possible stale Leadership Team listing; Cary = CIO from Leadership Team page; Lanier = CFO/Deputy ED; Simonds = Board Chair; Dyer = Vice-Chair after May 2026 election; McMurry = Chief Information Officer (not investments).

Schema honesty: Organization + GovernmentOrganization fit a state statutory retirement system; FAQPage mirrors twelve on-page questions; VideoObject omitted without a stable official embed; single www canonical via Ghost post.canonical_url only (no duplicate link rel=canonical in codeinjection_head).

Comparability note for registry users: TRS Georgia’s public-equity-heavy mix differs from peers with large private markets (see allocation annex). Benefit formula (2% × FAS × service) is classic U.S. teachers DB design shared in spirit with other state teachers’ plans, but contribution rates, COLA practice, and funded ratios are Georgia-specific — always cite Georgia primaries.

Corrections path: info@universalassetowners.com. Daily-refresh remains disabled for this institution SSR. Desk registry-people-desk-41.json is untouched (sha prefix a13480ec21c4dc98). Parent agents handle CoS/SEO pings; this ship does not message other agents.

Research pack location: /workspace/uao-research/trs-georgia/2026-09-06-TRS-Georgia-primary-source-brief.md and primaries under /workspace/uao-trs-georgia-2026-09-06/primaries/ including ACFR2025.txt, Valuation2025.txt, and minutes_2026-05-13.clean.txt extracted from the official minutes HTML.

If future ACFR FY2026 or newer minutes supersede $116.8 bn / $130.5 bn / 12.2% / leadership titles, update the elite page from those primaries rather than from secondary databases. Until then, these dated official figures are the ship baseline researched 7 September 2026 (America/Toronto).

Annex — statutory & institutional context

History page: established 1943 to provide retirement security to citizens who dedicate their lives to educating children and adults of Georgia; largest public retirement system in Georgia; purpose to proficiently administer the retirement fund for members and beneficiaries at retirement, disability, or death.

About page security framing for members: State of Georgia guarantees TRS members will receive retirement income for life under the plan; benefits can pass to beneficiaries depending on election — this is plan-design language distinct from market-value funded ratios.

Legislative interface: homepage and legislation hub track General Assembly actions affecting TRS (including SB 150). Board minutes Item 4 on May 13, 2026 notes a legislative report provided for information — ongoing statutory change is a standing monitoring item for employers and members.

Joint governance with education employers: contribution rates and salary-limit caps feed directly into local school system and USG budgeting. Employer Services / Contact Management leadership (Donaldson) and Retirement Services (Buice) are the operational counterparts to Board rate-setting.

Investment Committee endoresement of Aldridge (minutes) illustrates how the statutory investment-expertise seat is filled by remaining trustees when a vacancy occurs — a governance process distinct from gubernatorial classroom-teacher appointments.

Public Plans Database and Global SWF secondary profiles may show ~$117 bn AUM and similar allocation snapshots; they are useful discovery tools but are explicitly subordinated here to ACFR and board-minute USD. Influence Index or GSR percentages, if seen elsewhere on UAO, are editorial composites — not TRS ratings.

Annex — extended ACFR & operations notes

MD&A financial highlights restated with dates

At June 30, 2025, the System’s assets and deferred outflows of resources exceeded liabilities and deferred inflows of resources, yielding net position restricted for pensions of about $116.8 billion (ACFR MD&A / statements). The $10.6 billion year-over-year increase is primarily attributed to positive equity market returns. Total investment portfolio fair value rose about $11.8 billion. Net investment income of about $12.7 billion reflected the 12.2% time-weighted return environment, even though net investment income dollars were slightly below the prior year’s $13.4 billion when the prior-year return comparison was 14.5%.

Additions versus deductions: employer contributions rose 11.0% on salaries, headcount, and the contribution-rate increase; member contributions rose 6.5%; benefit payments rose 4.5% as retiree counts and 1.50% semi-annual-style postretirement increases flowed through payroll. Active membership rose about 0.7%; retired membership about 2.6%; average monthly benefits about 1.9% in the statistical highlights extract.

Investment section philosophy — extended quote context

The Investment Section argues that although annual asset-class returns vary, equities have typically outperformed fixed income and cash by a wide margin over long horizons, which is why TRS has generally maintained significant equity exposure while using fixed income to generate income and preserve capital. Quality maintenance is described as a successfully met primary goal. These statements are TRS’s own framing inside the ACFR — useful for understanding risk appetite relative to peers that emphasize private markets or absolute-return overlays.

Private equity, though only 1.0% of assets at YE2025, is called out separately in return attribution (12.7% for the year) and in the dollar growth of the sleeve. International equities’ index comparisons are printed alongside domestic equity results, reminding readers that currency and regional equity beta matter even inside a U.S. teachers’ plan.

Statistical section uses

ACFR statistical schedules typically include changes in fiduciary net position over ten years, membership counts, average benefits, and related ratios. For allocator research, the combination of (1) audited YE net position, (2) interim board-reported assets restricted, and (3) actuarial funded ratio gives a three-lens view: market snapshot, near-real-time board monitoring, and funding policy progress. None of the three should be silently substituted for another.

Participating employer count is a Public Plans Database secondary field (~294 in some 2025 PPD extracts) — label secondary if used; prefer TRS employer communications and GASB 68 employer counts when published in primary PDFs.

Member-facing digital and events stack

TRS runs new-hire, mid-career, pre-retirement, and retiree events; hosts employer-hosted TRS events; and publishes forms libraries spanning beneficiary, disability, EFT, employer, membership, purchasing/verifying service credit, refunds, service retirement, and working-after-retirement. The Pension Calculator supports estimates. Multifactor authentication prompts on My TRS Login reflect the Zero Trust messaging in CIO-of-IT podcasts.

These service channels matter to asset-owner researchers only insofar as they evidence administrative capacity and communication quality — not as AUM drivers. Still, May 2026 call-center and workshop volumes show a large retail-member operation sitting atop a $100 billion+ trust.

Why this profile clears the thin-source gate

Unlike Texas TRS (Imperva block → SKIP), trsga.com returned HTTP 200 for About, Leadership, Board, Governance, Publications, news, and minutes, and served multi-megabyte ACFR and valuation PDFs with extractable text. Combined primary text substantially exceeds 3,000 words before any UAO drafting. This ship therefore proceeds to elite SSR rather than SKIP.

Remaining gaps (Economic Impact brochure PDF not separately downloaded; some older minutes PDFs image-only; no RI metrics PDF) are listed under Completeness as non-blocking expansions — not reasons to pad with unsourced prose.

Annex — ADEC path and payroll growth

The valuation’s principal results show earnable compensation rising from about $15.35 billion to $16.32 billion (thousands in source) alongside a 0.7% active headcount increase — implying meaningful average-pay growth (minutes cite about 5.6% average payroll increase). That payroll base is the denominator for percentage-of-pay contribution rates, so ADEC changes interact with wage inflation and hiring.

Holding the FY2028 ADEC at 22.32% employer / 6.00% member after the FY2025 valuation means the Board accepted the actuary’s finding that those rates remain sufficient under the funding policy despite UAAL still near $30 billion. The amortization period shortened from 20.6 to 19.2 years on the valuation’s blended measure — a modest progress signal when paired with the AVA funded-ratio increase to 78.7%.

Employers budgeting for FY2028 should use the Board-adopted 22.32% figure from the May 13, 2026 minutes rather than the FY2025 operational 20.78% rate. Members continue at 6.00%. Nonemployer contributions remain a smaller shared-cost feature in the ACFR additions table.

Normal cost 8.81% including 0.15% administrative expenses shows that a large share of the employer rate (13.51% UAAL) is legacy unfunded liability amortization rather than pure normal cost — typical of mature U.S. teachers’ plans and important for interpreting contribution-rate headlines.

Discount rate 6.90% is both the funding valuation rate in the CavMac report and the investment-return assumption referenced in ACFR actuarial note extracts. Money-weighted and time-weighted market returns in FY2025 exceeded that assumption, supporting the smoothed 8.64% five-year figure cited to the Board.

If future experience studies revise mortality, retirement, or salary scales, ADEC could move even with identical asset performance. Publications’ 2023 experience investigation is the latest multi-year demographic study on the site as of this research pass.

Analysts comparing Georgia TRS to CalSTRS, Texas TRS, or Florida teachers’ structures must keep contribution-rate definitions (who pays; whether admin is inside normal cost; COLA automaticity) aligned — Georgia’s 1.50% postretirement increases noted in MD&A for specific dates are empirical history, not a promise of identical future COLAs.

Annex — registry researcher checklist

Before citing TRS Georgia in allocator memos, confirm five locks: (1) entity is Georgia not Texas; (2) AUM date matches either 30 June 2025 net position $116.8 billion or May 2026 minutes $130.5 billion assets restricted; (3) Executive Director is Jason L. Branch from 1 November 2025; (4) CIO title Charles W. Cary, Jr. is taken from the Leadership Team page if used; (5) funded ratio 78.7% AVA and assumed return 6.90% come from the 30 June 2025 valuation / May 2026 board acceptance.

Document outbound links in order: ACFR PDF, valuation PDF, board minutes page, Leadership Team, Branch news, GFOA news, Plans/About for mandate language. Keep screenshots or retrieved HTML in the research pack when sites are known to change dual listings (Evans/Branch).

For peer tables, place TRS Georgia among large U.S. state teachers’ / public DB plans with public-markets-heavy allocations. Flag the ~1% private equity weight as a differentiator versus plans with double-digit private markets. Do not infer underperformance from that structural choice without multi-decade ACFR return tables.

Governance watchlist items for the next two board cycles: Aldridge onboarding as investment-expertise trustee from 1 July 2026; Investment Committee composition continuity; FY2028 contribution-rate employer communications; SB 150 return-to-work implementation after 1 July 2026; Leadership Team page cleanup of dual Executive Director listing; FY2026 ACFR when published.

Person SSR follow-ups (non-blocking): create or link pages for Charles W. Cary, Jr., Deborah K. Simonds, Laura L. Lanier, and Kenneth Dyer if editorial priority allows — this institution ship does not rewrite desk-41.

SEO/schema self-check after publish: H1 equals Teachers Retirement System of Georgia with no UAO Top 100 pipe; canonical count 1 on www; FAQPage 12; Organization and GovernmentOrganization present; VideoObject absent; sitemap 06bc includes this slug and excludes SAFE, Texas TRS, and Kuwait PIFSS; Googlebot 200; prior elites still 200.

Editorial composite scores (Influence Index, GSR, etc.) remain out of scope for factual AUM/leadership claims. If mentioned on UAO elsewhere, label them editorial. Soft INST cards are starting points only.

This annex closes the sourced pack for the 56th live elite institution profile researched and drafted 7 September 2026 in America/Toronto, building on the PMT (55th) mirror pattern with Georgia-specific primaries.

Annex — closing source attestation

Primary URLs opened for this profile include trsga.com home, About, Leadership Team, Board of Trustees, Board Meeting Minutes (May 13, 2026 HTML minutes card), Governance, Mission and Vision, History, Retirement Plans Offered, Economic Impact, Publications, Branch appointment news, GFOA certificate news, Legislation hub, Multimedia hub, and Contact Us. PDF primaries: TRS_ACFR2025_Protected.pdf, GA TRS 6-30-2025 Valuation Report FINAL, and TRS ACFR 2024 Final for comparative checks.

Figures repeated across sections (116.767912 billion net position; 12.2% time-weighted; 10.1% money-weighted; 78.7% AVA funded; 22.32% FY2028 employer ADEC; 130.5 billion interim assets restricted; Branch effective 1 Nov 2025; Cary CIO on Leadership Team) are intentional cross-references for speakable/FAQ consistency, not filler. Each traces to the ACFR, valuation, minutes, or leadership/news pages cited in Sources.

Word-count completeness targets ~10k sourced words without inventing portfolio companies, private emails, phone trees, or Texas TRS data. Where the official site uses Play Video without an extractable embed ID, this profile states that limitation plainly and skips VideoObject rather than guessing a YouTube ID from channel listings.

FAQ

What is the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia (TRS Georgia)?

TRS Georgia is the statewide defined-benefit pension system established in 1943 by the Georgia General Assembly for public-school teachers, many University System of Georgia employees, and certain other education-related public employees. It administers a 401(a) defined benefit plan under Georgia law (Title 47 O.C.G.A.). Official site: https://www.trsga.com/. It is not the Teacher Retirement System of Texas.

How large is TRS Georgia in official US dollars?

Prefer dated official USD. ACFR FY2025: net position restricted for pensions $116.767912 billion as of June 30, 2025 (from $106.174001 billion). May 13, 2026 Board minutes: assets restricted for pensions $130.5 billion (20% above April 2025), with $3.9 billion YTD contributions and $5.7 billion benefits through April 30, 2026. Soft INST ~US$117 bn estimates are not substitutes for these prints.

Who is the Executive Director of TRS Georgia?

Dr. Jason L. Branch is Executive Director effective November 1, 2025 (official news November 3, 2025). He appears in May 13, 2026 Board minutes as staff presenting operational updates. UAO person SSR: https://www.universalassetowners.com/registry/person/jason-l-branch/. The Leadership Team page may still list L.C. (Buster) Evans, Ed.D. with an Executive Director label — treat as stale dual listing relative to the Branch appointment; Evans signed the FY2025 ACFR letter dated September 26, 2025.

Who is the Chief Investment Officer?

Charles W. Cary, Jr. is published as Chief Investment Officer on the live TRS Leadership Team page (trsga.com/about-us/leadership-team/). INST soft CIO fields may be empty — do not invent a CIO from INST, and do not invent a different name. Tom McMurry is Chief Information Officer (IT), not the investment CIO.

What returns did TRS Georgia report for fiscal year 2025?

ACFR: time-weighted return 12.2%; equities about 14.4%; private equity about 12.7%; fixed income about 6.0%; money-weighted return 10.1% (vs 11.5% FY2024). May 2026 Board minutes cite an actuarial market-value return of 12.1% for FY2025 and a five-year smoothed return of 8.64% versus a 6.90% assumed rate.

What is TRS Georgia’s asset allocation as of June 30, 2025?

ACFR percentages: domestic equities 57.5%; international equities 17.4%; private equity 1.0%; U.S. treasuries 17.9%; domestic corporate and other bonds 5.9%; international corporates 0.3%; real estate —. Policy ranges noted include equities 55%–75% and alternatives 0%–5%.

How is the TRS Board of Trustees structured?

Ten members under Georgia statutes: State Auditor and State Treasurer ex officio; plus appointees covering a retired member, an investment-experienced citizen who is not a System member, classroom teachers, a school administrator, a Board of Regents employee member, and a member-at-large (Governance page). The Board appoints the Executive Director. As of May 13, 2026 elections: Chair Deborah K. Simonds; Vice-Chair Kenneth Dyer.

How many members does TRS Georgia serve?

About page: over 500,000 member accounts (active, retired, survivors) and retiree payroll exceeding $5 billion per year. ACFR/valuation FY2025 scale: roughly 242,000 actives and about 156,000 retired members/beneficiaries depending on the exact table. May 1, 2026 payroll: 140,593 service retirees; $565.8 million monthly benefits.

What funded-status figures did TRS publish for 2025?

CavMac actuarial valuation as of June 30, 2025 (accepted May 13, 2026): funded ratio on actuarial value of assets 78.7% (from 77.9%); UAAL about $29.924 billion; assumed return 6.90%; FY2028 ADEC employer rate 22.32% with member 6.00%.

Is TRS Georgia the same as Texas TRS?

No. Teachers Retirement System of Georgia (trsga.com; Atlanta) is a separate legal entity from the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. Do not mix AUM, boards, or executives. This UAO elite profile covers Georgia only; Texas TRS was skipped after Imperva blocked primary harvesting.

Where are TRS Georgia primary financial reports?

Start at https://www.trsga.com/publications/ for the FY2025 ACFR PDF and June 30, 2025 actuarial valuation; https://www.trsga.com/about-us/board-of-trustees/board-meeting-minutes/ for open-session minutes including the May 13, 2026 $130.5 billion interim assets note; and https://www.trsga.com/about-us/leadership-team/ for published officer titles.

Is there an official TRS Georgia video embed on this profile?

No VideoObject on this profile. The site links an official YouTube channel and hosts Play Video widgets (About / Economic Impact / homepage TRS Talks), but static HTML did not expose a stable institutional embed ID suitable for schema. Member podcasts and Social Security explainer videos remain on the official channels.

Sources & further reading

Official video

No stable official institutional video embed ID was available from static HTML on trsga.com (channel link only; Play Video widgets without extractable YouTube/Vimeo IDs). This profile therefore omits an embed and omits VideoObject schema rather than inventing a clip.

No official embed on this page. Official YouTube channel: TRS Georgia on YouTube.

Completeness note

Local sourced-word target ~10k+. Primaries folded: ACFR FY2025, CavMac valuation 30 Jun 2025, May 13 2026 board minutes HTML, About/Leadership/Board/Governance/History/Mission/Plans, Branch and GFOA news. Non-blocking expansions: OCR of scanned older minutes PDFs; Economic Impact brochure PDF if linked; full Investment Section manager tables; future RI/climate PDF if published; person SSR pages for Cary/Simonds/Lanier when created. No filler. Daily-refresh left disabled. Desk-41 untouched.

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