City of Milford Pension & Retirement Fund

City of Milford Pension & Retirement Fund

The City of Milford Pension & Retirement Fund operates as the municipal retirement system for employees of Milford, Connecticut. Governance is vested in a Pension & Retirement Board, chaired by Gregory S. Kimmel with Ann Maher serving as Secretary and Christian McInnis as Vice Chairman. The board's monthly meeting cadence provides a regular oversight rhythm for a plan that serves a classic municipal workforce: police, firefighters, public works, and city administrators. The fund holds an alternatives allocation uncommon for a municipality of Milford's size. A dedicated India-focused private equity allocation is managed externally by Mukul Gulati at Zephyr Management, a New York-headquartered emerging markets specialist that has deployed capital into Indian growth companies since the 1990s. The fund also maintains a precious-metals equity sleeve through a Gold and Silver Stocks Portfolio, alongside a broader Alternative Investment Portfolio encompassing private-market exposures. The domestic public-equity and fixed-income book likely forms the core, though exact weights remain undisclosed. The geographic footprint spans US public markets, India private equity, and global commodity-linked equities. The board's volunteer structure — with appointed officials serving alongside city financial staff — reflects the governance model of Connecticut's smaller municipal plans. The fund's decision to allocate internationally and into alternatives, rather than remaining in a plain-vanilla 60/40, signals an investment committee willing to step beyond the state's pension default settings. Zephyr Management, the sole externally named partner, has historically closed mid-market growth funds targeting India, suggesting Milford participates through a commingled vehicle rather than direct co-investments. What distinguishes this plan structurally is the combination of a small municipal footprint with an emerging-markets private-equity sleeve. Most Connecticut suburban plans of Milford's population tier concentrate assets in state-run fixed-income pools or broad index mandates. The India allocation, likely placed over a decade ago given Zephyr's vintage cycles in the region, represents a strategic bet on a demographic thesis that larger state plans typically access through much larger commitments.