Public Pension Funds: The Need for Federal Regulation of Trustee Investment Decisionst

Abstract

Whenever the ownership and control of property are separated, owners face the possibility that their property will be managed not for their benefit, but for the benefit of its controllers. Owners, therefore, must act to protect their property against expropriation by controllers with divergent interests. At present, pension funds constitute the largest single source of investment capital in the United States. This Comment examines both the extent to which trustee management of state and local public pension funds sepatrates ownership and control into groups with divergent interests and the measures necessary to align those interests to insure that management of public funds benefits their owner/participants.