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California Teachers Association Member Welfare Benefit Plan
The California Teachers Association Member Welfare Benefit Plan was established in 1999 to provide retirement, disability, and death benefits for CTA...
California Teachers Association Member Welfare Benefit Plan
The California Teachers Association Member Welfare Benefit Plan was established in 1999 to provide retirement, disability, and death benefits for CTA members and staff. The plan operates under the stewardship of a trustee board chaired by CTA President David Goldberg, with Vice President Leslie Littman, Secretary-Treasurer Erika Jones, and Executive Director Joe Boyd also serving as trustees. Carole Anne Luckenbach manages day-to-day plan administration and risk management from the plan's headquarters in Burlingame. The plan pursues an unusually broad mandate for a sub-$400M pool — spanning early-stage venture, growth equity, buyouts, mezzanine lending, and special situations. Its implementation model blends direct co-investments with commitments to external managers through a fund-of-funds approach, a structure that gives a relatively small plan access to strategies typically reserved for endowments multiple times its size. The strategy covers seed and start-up venture stages alongside late-stage and turnaround situations, with BeneSys providing third-party administration. Membership in the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP) signals engagement with best practices among Taft-Hartley and multiemployer plans. The CTA also maintains philanthropic and operating structures alongside the benefit plan: the California Teachers Association Disaster Relief Fund, the Foundation for Teaching and Learning, and the CTA Institute for Teaching — each legally separate from the welfare benefit trust's assets. Total plan assets are estimated at $387 million (Altss estimate). The plan's structural differentiator is its width relative to size. Where most welfare benefit plans this small concentrate in fixed-income or a handful of large-cap equity managers, CTA's trust maintains exposure across venture capital, mezzanine debt, and co-investment alongside buyout sponsors — an allocation pattern more commonly found at public pension plans managing ten to fifty times this asset base.
General information
Firm type
Pension Fund
Year founded
1999
AUM
$350M - $400M (Altss estimate)
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Burlingame
Corporate office
Burlingame, CA, United States
Principals
David Goldberg
Trustee and CTA President
Leslie Littman
Trustee and CTA Vice President
Erika Jones
Trustee and CTA Secretary-Treasurer
Joe Boyd
Trustee and CTA Executive Director
Carole Anne Luckenbach
Plan Administrator and Risk Management Manager
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at this plan?
Investment governance rests with the board of trustees. David Goldberg chairs the board — he is president of the California Teachers Association, the plan's sponsor — and serves alongside Vice President Leslie Littman, Secretary-Treasurer Erika Jones, and Executive Director Joe Boyd. Carole Anne Luckenbach is named plan administrator and risk management manager, likely the day-to-day liaison to BeneSys, which administers the plan.
How does this plan source its investment opportunities?
The plan uses a fund-of-funds and co-investment model rather than building a large in-house sourcing team. This suggests that access comes through established relationships with general partners at the fund-of-funds level, supplemented by direct co-investment opportunities offered by those same managers. The dual approach lets a sub-$400M plan participate in deals that would otherwise require far larger check sizes or dedicated origination staff.
Is this part of CalSTRS or the broader California teacher pension system?
No — the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) is a separate, far larger defined-benefit pension plan with its own governance. This is the California Teachers Association Economic Benefits Trust Member Welfare Benefit Plan, a different legal entity providing welfare benefits — retirement, disability, and death coverage — for CTA members and employees. It is a multiemployer plan administered by BeneSys and overseen by CTA trustees.
Does this plan commit to venture capital funds or invest directly into companies?
The plan pursues both. Its strategy tags span Early Stage (Seed and Start-up), Venture (General), and Co-Investment alongside Fund of Funds commitments. This indicates that capital flows both into venture capital fund commitments and into direct co-investments alongside those fund managers — a model that can reduce blended fees while increasing exposure to individual portfolio companies.
What investment stages and asset classes does the plan explicitly avoid?
The Altss research record does not identify explicitly excluded asset classes. Given the plan's small aggregate size and broad current mandate — spanning venture, growth, buyouts, mezzanine, turnaround, and special situations — the primary constraint is likely capacity rather than a published avoidance list. Very large-cap buyouts or infrastructure projects requiring nine-figure commitments would be beyond reach for a plan this scale.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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