City of Franklin Employees' Pension Plan and Trust

City of Franklin Employees' Pension Plan and Trust

The plan was established in 1971 as a single-employer defined benefit scheme for municipal employees of Franklin, Tennessee. Its oversight falls to a five-member Employee Pension Committee composed of the mayor, an alderman who serves as chairman, the city's human resources director, and an appointed citizen representative — Bob Ravener, formerly Chief People Officer at Dollar General. The assistant city administrator and CFO serves as staff contact. Investment management and administration shifted decisively in 2017 when the plan entered a partnership with the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System (TCRS), which now runs the core portfolio. Before this transition, the plan made direct allocations to alternative assets, and legacy holdings persist. Known exposures include a dedicated City of Franklin Pension Real Estate Fund Portfolio covering mixed-use properties, separate timberland investments across the United States, and a distinct City of Franklin separate limited partnership. The plan also participates in the Tennessee Retiree Group Trust for post-employment benefits. The current posture emphasizes secondary-market interests within private markets, while TCRS handles day-to-day asset management and reporting. No public professional headcount or deployment total is disclosed. The plan's investment structure is lean: external management through TCRS with committee oversight from Franklin-based officials, supported by the CFO's office. The City of Franklin itself participates in the Tennessee Municipal League and has received financial reporting awards from the Government Finance Officers Association, whose model policies guide the city's investment program. Structurally, this plan is a pure agency model — no internal investment staff, no co-investment clubs, no hybrid family-office dynamics. Its distinctiveness lies in the bifurcation between TCRS-managed pooled assets and the legacy direct holdings that predate the 2017 agreement. The pension committee retains governance over that legacy sleeve, creating a duel-track oversight structure unusual among Tennessee municipal plans of its size.