# City of Fall River (Mass.) Contributory Retirement System

City of Fall River (Mass.) Contributory Retirement System is a Pension Fund based in Fall River, United States.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Pension Fund
- **Headquarters:** Fall River, United States
- **Region:** North America
- **Address:** Fall River, MA, United States
- **Founded:** 1854
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed
- **Website:** fallriverma.gov
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/city-of-fall-river

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

The City of Fall River (Mass.) Contributory Retirement System manages pension assets for the city's retired and active municipal employees, functioning under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 32 and regulatory oversight from the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission. The retirement board includes appointed and elected members, chaired by Mark Nassiff, Jr., with Michael Pasternak serving as Executive Director and Administrator. Like most Massachusetts local systems, Fall River's governance is a hybrid of local board control and state-level regulation. The fund allocates across a conventional public pension mix: domestic and international equities, fixed income, and a meaningful alternatives program. Alternatives exposure includes private equity fund commitments, hedge fund allocations, real estate, and a dedicated timberland allocation, reflecting a long-duration, inflation-aware posture common among small to mid-sized Bay State pension funds. The system relies on investment consultants — including Boston-based Portfolio Completion Strategies, identified in public records — to source and underwrite external managers. This outsourced-CIO model is standard for Massachusetts contributory systems that lack the scale to build large internal investment teams. The fund is also a member of the Massachusetts Association of Contributory Retirement Systems, the advocacy and education body for the state's 102 local retirement boards. Personnel details are thin: the board comprises six listed members with statutory roles — Nassiff as appointed chair, Sedryk Sousa as the ex officio member, and three elected members plus a fifth member. The fund's precise asset size is not publicly reported through a standalone annual report accessible online; smaller Massachusetts contributory systems often embed their financials within city comprehensive annual financial reports rather than maintaining independent investor-relations properties. The fund's structural identity is defined more by its statutory container than by any distinctive investment philosophy. Operating within the Massachusetts contributory framework, it is one of roughly one hundred local retirement systems that pool bargaining-unit and non-bargaining-unit municipal employees. The key allocative decisions — manager selection, asset-liability pacing, and the timberland carveout — are executed through board votes advised by an external consultant, not an internal CIO. This consultant-driven governance, combined with the open-meeting-law transparency requirements for Massachusetts public boards, creates an investment process that is inherently more deliberative and constrained than that of a corporate or single-family allocator.

## Sectors

- Real Estate
- Infrastructure
- Private Equity
- Hedge Funds
- Timberland

## People

- Mark Nassiff, Jr. — Chairperson, Appointed Member
- Michael Pasternak — Executive Director/Board Administrator
- Sedryk Sousa — Ex Officio Member
- James Machado — Elected Member
- Robert Camara — Elected Member
- Nicholas Christ — Fifth Member

## Questions

### What alternative asset classes does the fund invest in?

The fund allocates to private equity, hedge funds, real estate, and timberland. The timberland allocation is notable — a niche real-asset exposure that provides long-duration returns outside traditional core real estate and reflects a deliberate inflation-hedging posture.

### Is the Fall River system part of a larger state pension fund?

No. It is an independent contributory retirement system authorized under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 32, not part of the Massachusetts State Employees' Retirement System or the PRIT (Pension Reserves Investment Trust) pool. It is one of over 100 local systems serving individual cities, towns, and regional authorities.

### Which regulatory body oversees the Fall River pension fund?

The Massachusetts Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission (PERAC) regulates the fund, setting actuarial standards, funding schedules, and reporting requirements for all 102 Massachusetts contributory retirement systems.

## Related profiles

- [City of Dearborn Post Retirement Health Care Fund](https://altss.com/profile/city-of-dearborn-post-retirement-health-care-fund)
- [City of Freeport](https://altss.com/profile/city-of-freeport)

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Source record modified: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z

Last verified: not supplied by this public snapshot.

## Sources and provenance

- Organization website as recorded: https://fallriverma.gov/
Source links do not imply that every field was verified on the page modification date. See [Altss methodology](https://altss.com/methodology).

Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/city-of-fall-river-mass-contributory-retirement-system

Maintained by Altss — https://altss.com — methodology: https://altss.com/methodology