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New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board Pension
LaToya Cantrell-led public pension for New Orleans' water and sewer utility with a real-asset bent — assets near $230M per Altss estimate.
New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board Pension
The New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board Pension was founded in 1956 as a single-employer defined benefit plan covering the full-time workforce of the Sewerage and Water Board. Its governance sits with a board of trustees led by the sitting mayor of New Orleans — currently LaToya Cantrell — and includes a dedicated pension committee chaired by Joseph Peychaud. The plan is a component of the municipal fabric, providing retirement, death, and disability benefits exclusively to the employees who maintain one of America's oldest urban water systems. An Altss estimate places the plan's assets near $230M, a pool small enough to move via fund commitments and direct co-investments, yet shaped by a board with unusual operational proximity to hard assets. The pension's portfolio lists real estate and infrastructure composites alongside physical industrial properties, and the staff pays benefits from the Pension Trust Fund Portfolio — a generic label that belies the tie to a utility that owns a power substation and three water plants. While the pension publishes no detailed asset-allocation study, its aligned interests with the Board of Liquidation City Debt and its sponsor's own capital-intensive mission suggest an overweight to real assets uncommon for a plan its size. Joseph Peychaud chairs the pension committee for a board that has cycled through executive leadership: Ghassan Korban served as Executive Director before Randy E. Hayman assumed the post in 2025. The plan participates in the Louisiana Public Employees' Retirement Systems Association, linking it to statewide peers, and its research counterparty list — including Al Rajhi Capital and CardinalStone, accessed through Avior Capital Markets US — hints at a buyout and fund-of-funds posture that stretches beyond Louisiana borders. No personnel count is publicly available. The fund's structural differentiator isn't scale or sourcing machinery — it's the governance overlap with a municipal utility that physically owns the power stations, water plants, and underground networks that generate the payroll deductions funding the plan. That alignment places the pension inside the same operational reality as its infrastructure investments, a posture few public plans share.
General information
Firm type
Pension Fund
Year founded
1956
AUM
$230M (Altss estimate)
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
New Orleans
Corporate office
New Orleans, LA, United States
Principals
LaToya Cantrell
President of the Board of Trustees
Joseph Peychaud
Chair of the Pension Committee
Randy E. Hayman
Executive Director of the Sewerage and Water Board
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board Pension?
The Board of Trustees, with Mayor LaToya Cantrell as its president, retains ultimate fiduciary authority. Day-to-day oversight flows through a pension committee chaired by Joseph Peychaud, operating within the municipal governance structure of the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans.
Does the pension operate as a standalone entity or is it embedded within the utility?
It is a single-employer defined benefit plan that exists exclusively to serve employees of the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans. The fund's governance is structurally intertwined with the utility — the mayor serves as board president, and the pension committee sits within the authority's broader administrative apparatus.
What investment vehicles does the plan use?
Altss research indicates a strategy that combines fund-of-funds commitments with buyout exposure. The plan's portfolio lists real estate and infrastructure composites, and it maintains research counterparty relationships with international firms, suggesting a mix of direct co-investments and pooled vehicles across public and private markets.
How large is the pension fund relative to other Louisiana public plans?
An Altss estimate places the fund around $230 million, positioning it toward the smaller end of Louisiana's public retirement systems and well below the multi-billion-dollar state-level plans. Its membership in the Louisiana Public Employees' Retirement Systems Association places it alongside peers of varying sizes across the state.
What makes this pension's investment posture different from a generic municipal plan?
Its sponsoring employer is a capital-intensive utility that owns electrical substations and water treatment plants. That operational reality influences a portfolio tilted toward real assets and infrastructure — investment exposures that parallel the physical system the plan's beneficiaries run daily.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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