# IAFF

IAFF is a Pension Fund based in Washington, United States.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Pension Fund
- **Headquarters:** Washington, United States
- **Region:** North America
- **Address:** 1750 New York Ave NW, Washington, DC 20006, United States
- **Founded:** 1957
- **Assets under management:** $44M (Altss estimate)
- **Website:** iaff.org

## About

The International Association of Fire Fighters Employees Pension Plan was established in 1957 as a defined-benefit plan serving the union's own workforce. The fund is financially administered under General Secretary-Treasurer Frank V. Lima, with operational oversight from COO Kurt Becker and trustee-level direction from General President Edward A. Kelly. Unlike the massive state-level firefighter retirement systems, this plan is narrowly scoped to IAFF's internal employees and officers. The pension's investment posture centers on secondaries and special situations. The plan also holds a direct real estate asset: the IAFF's own headquarters building at 1750 New York Avenue NW, a commercial property near the White House. With an estimated $44 million in assets, the fund operates without the consultant-heavy, multi-manager infrastructure common to billion-dollar public plans — it moves as a compact, internal capital pool. The IAFF's broader financial architecture includes the IAFF Financial Corporation, which operates as a taxable entity offering insurance and financial services to union members, and the IAFF Foundation, a philanthropic arm providing direct assistance to firefighters. The plan's most distinctive structural feature is its embedded real asset — owning the union's headquarters. That direct property stake, combined with a secondaries-focused investment mandate, creates a hybrid posture rare among defined-benefit plans of any size. For allocators mapping the small-pension landscape, the IAFF represents a niche counterparty: mission-aligned with first-responder labor, sub-$50M in deployable assets, and operating without an external CIO or OCIO layer visible in the public record.

## Sectors

- Secondaries & Special Situations

## People

- Edward A. Kelly — General President
- Frank V. Lima — General Secretary-Treasurer
- Kurt Becker — Chief Operating Officer

## Questions

### How is the IAFF pension different from state firefighter retirement systems?

This is a critical distinction. State-level systems like CalPERS or the Florida Retirement System manage tens of billions for municipal firefighters. The IAFF Employees Pension Plan exclusively covers the union's own staff — the organizers, administrators, and officers of the International Association of Fire Fighters — not the rank-and-file firefighters those state systems serve.

### What is the IAFF Financial Corporation and how does it relate to the pension?

The IAFF Financial Corporation is a taxable entity that provides insurance products and financial services to union members. It is separate from the pension plan but operates under shared leadership — COO Kurt Becker is involved in both. The Financial Corporation represents a parallel revenue stream that is not commingled with retirement assets.

## Related profiles

- [I.B.E.W. Local 490 Pension Fund](https://altss.com/profile/i-b-e-w-local-490-pension-fund)
- [Putnam County Community Foundation](https://altss.com/profile/putnam-county-community-foundation)

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Last updated: 2026-08-11T02:43:31.692Z

Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/iaff

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