Cash Balance Plan for Partners & Sr. Staff of STB

Cash Balance Plan for Partners & Sr. Staff of STB

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett established its Cash Balance Plan in 2011 to provide retirement, death, and disability benefits specifically for the firm's partners and senior staff. The plan is sponsored and governed internally, with oversight from the firm's Investment and Pension Committee. Barrie B. Covit, a partner at Simpson Thacher, chairs that committee and is the named fiduciary guiding allocation decisions alongside Elizabeth A. Cooper, the firm's Global Head of Private Equity, and Greg Grogan, who leads the Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits practice. The plan's investment posture is distinctively alternative-focused. Its strategy spans buyout, venture capital, distressed debt, and special situations — covering the full private capital spectrum from seed-stage startups to expansion-stage companies and control buyouts. The plan operates a dedicated Alternative Investment Portfolio based in New York, suggesting a commitment to direct and fund commitments across these asset classes rather than a traditional 60/40 retirement portfolio. This concentration reflects the firm's institutional knowledge: Simpson Thacher is one of the world's preeminent private equity law firms, representing sponsors like Blackstone, KKR, and Silver Lake on fund formation and deal work, giving its internal investment committee deep visibility into manager quality and strategy. Unlike multi-employer or public plans, the Cash Balance Plan is a closed, firm-specific vehicle. Its investor base is Simpson Thacher's partnership and senior staff — a concentrated, high-net-worth constituency that allows the plan to take meaningful illiquidity risk in pursuit of higher returns. Team size and total assets are not publicly disclosed, but the plan's strategy breadth and institutional governance imply material scale. The committee draws on Simpson Thacher's broader transactional practices, particularly the private equity group led by Cooper, for informal sourcing and diligence, though the plan maintains fiduciary separation from the law firm's client work. What distinguishes this vehicle structurally is its integration within a law firm rather than a financial institution. Corporate pension plans typically invest through external consultants; this plan's committee is populated by partners who negotiate fund terms and advise sponsors for a living. That means the plan negotiates from the same information set as its GP clients — a sourcing and diligence edge that no standalone pension consultant can replicate.