Fairhaven Retirement Board

The Retirement Board itself holds fiduciary authority, but it does not make direct investment decisions. The board allocates assets through the Pension Reserves Investment Trust (PRIT), managed by PRIM in Boston. PRIM's professional investment team handles manager selection, asset allocation, and portfolio construction for all participating Massachusetts retirement systems. The local board oversees benefits, contributions, and plan administration rather than picking individual investments.

Fairhaven is one of approximately 100 Massachusetts local retirement systems that pool investment assets into the Pension Reserves Investment Trust. PRIT functions like a state-run fund-of-funds, managing over $100 billion across public equity, fixed income, real estate, timberland, and private markets. Each local board maintains its own governance structure and benefit administration but delegates investment management to PRIM, the state's Pension Reserves Investment Management board. This hybrid model is specific to Massachusetts — most other states manage municipal pensions through a single consolidated fund.

Through its PRIT allocations, the board holds core fixed income, global equity, value-added fixed income, and portfolio completion strategies alongside institutional real estate and timberland exposures. Its real estate allocation flows through PRIT Core Realty Holdings LLC and a dedicated fund real estate portfolio. The timberland sleeve is managed within the PRIT Timberland Portfolio. No separate private equity, venture capital, or hedge fund sleeves are disclosed as distinct allocations, though PRIT's broader portfolio may include those asset classes across its commingled structure.

The board has not publicly disclosed a precise AUM figure. The estimated asset base is roughly $91 million, which would make it one of the smaller retirement systems participating in the Massachusetts PRIT pool. By comparison, the City of Boston's retirement system — a much larger participating plan — runs several billion dollars. Fairhaven's scale means its investment posture is entirely dependent on the PRIT commingled structure rather than any direct or separately-managed mandates.

No. The board does not make direct investments, co-investments, or separate fund commitments. All investment activity flows through the PRIT pooled structure managed by PRIM in Boston. The local board's role is limited to oversight, benefit administration, and ensuring adequate contributions from the sponsoring municipal employer. It does not have investment staff or the capacity to evaluate individual manager relationships independently of the state-level PRIM team.

Lee Ann Torres serves as Retirement Board Administrator, managing daily operations including member communications, benefit processing, and compliance with Massachusetts retirement law. The board is chaired by Anne Carreiro, and former Town Administrator Mark Rees has served as a board member. The board operates under PERAC oversight and participates in MACRS, the professional association for Massachusetts public retirement systems, which provides training and advocacy for local board members.

It is a separate legal entity from the Massachusetts State Employees' Retirement System (MSERS) and the Massachusetts Teachers' Retirement System (MTRS), but all three invest through the same PRIT pool managed by PRIM. Fairhaven's board collects contributions from the Town of Fairhaven and its employees, pays benefits to local retirees, and maintains its own actuarial reporting — but its investment assets sit inside the same PRIT trust as the larger state plans. This gives Fairhaven's small plan the same institutional pricing and manager access as the multi-billion-dollar state funds.