Electrician's Retirement Fund

Electrician's Retirement Fund

The Electrician's Retirement Fund was established in 2007 to provide retirement, disability, and death benefits to members of the United Electrical Workers of America, Local 363. The plan is sponsored by the Building Industry Electrical Contractors Association (BIECA), whose member contractors contribute under collective bargaining agreements. Administration is handled by Dickinson Group, LLC. Trustees Frank Rappo and Eric Olynik bring direct industry background — Rappo formerly owned R&L Systems, Inc., and Olynik previously owned D&E Electrical Contractors, Inc. The portfolio spans common and collective trusts, partnership and joint venture interests, corporate debt instruments, and U.S. government securities, alongside cash equivalents. Within private markets, the fund targets buyout, distressed debt, mezzanine, and fund-of-funds commitments — an allocation mix that embeds credit and equity sleeves across the risk spectrum. The fund's relationship with the Building Trades Annuity Benefit Fund, which shares trustees and administrator, suggests a co-investment framework where affiliated labor-benefit pools may leverage common diligence resources or parallel commitments. The plan reported total assets of approximately $203 million in the most recent public filings reviewed by Altss. The team footprint is lean — governance rests with the board of trustees, supported by Dickinson Group as the administrative service provider. Beyond its core retirement mandate, the fund maintains ties to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) as an industry association member, anchoring it within the broader electrical trades labor ecosystem. In recent years, multiemployer plans of this scale have increasingly sought exposure to private credit and special-situations funds to close funding gaps, though specific commitments by this fund remain undisclosed. The fund's structural differentiator is its position as a Taft-Hartley plan where trustees with direct contractor-operating experience oversee private-markets allocations. Rather than delegating to a full OCIO model or state-level investment board, the fund retains trustee-directed control, blending industry knowledge with external fund-manager selection. The adjoining Building Trades Annuity Benefit Fund relationship further concentrates decision-making among a small group of named fiduciaries, creating a governance architecture where personal accountability and multi-plan alignment sit alongside the compliance strictures of ERISA-regulated defined-benefit administration.