Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (OPEB Trust)

Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (OPEB Trust)

The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority established its Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) Trust to systematically prefund non-pension retiree obligations for employees of Orlando International Airport (MCO) and Orlando Executive Airport (ORL). The trust operates under the oversight of a Retirement Benefits Committee, chaired by Randy Hudgins and vice-chaired by GOAA Chief Financial Officer Kathleen Sharman. Joe Nunziata serves as Vice Chair of the broader GOAA board, linking the trust's governance to the authority's strategic direction. As a liability-driven investor, the OPEB Trust allocates across asset classes designed to match the duration and growth requirements of its actuarially determined benefit liabilities. Publicly reported holdings in comparable municipal OPEB trusts suggest allocations spanning core fixed income, domestic and international equities, and opportunistic allocations to real assets and private credit. The trust accesses markets exclusively through external investment managers and commingled funds, maintaining no internal direct-investment operation. The trust's size is not publicly reported, but GOAA employs approximately 800 people across two airports handling over 57 million passengers annually as of 2023. OPEB trusts of similarly scaled municipal entities in Florida typically manage assets in the low nine figures. The Retirement Benefits Committee meets quarterly to review asset allocation, manager performance, and actuarial funding ratios, with agendas posted through GOAA's public governance channels. The authority also participates in the Florida Airports Council, where peer OPEB trustees exchange investment and governance practices. The trust's structural differentiator is its singular liability focus: unlike a pension fund that must balance active employee accruals with benefit payouts, an OPEB trust faces a closed or closing participant pool with a defined liability tail. This concentrates investment attention on matching duration and liquidity to a known, declining obligation schedule rather than pursuing growth for an open, growing workforce. The governance is embedded within a municipal enterprise fund structure, meaning the trust's funding health directly influences GOAA's credit profile and airline cost-per-enplanement calculations.