North Atlantic States Carpenters Annuity Fund

A joint board of trustees, evenly split between union and employer representatives, governs the fund. Joseph Byrne, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the NASRCC, and Thomas Flynn are among the union-appointed trustees. Nicola Favorito serves as Executive Director of the Benefit Funds office administering day-to-day operations.

The Taft-Hartley structure mandates an equal number of union and employer trustees, creating a built-in check on risk and alignment. The fund's capital base is non-discretionary, flowing from collective bargaining agreements rather than voluntary contributions. This drives a preference for predictable, income-oriented assets that can meet actuarial targets without chasing high-volatility returns, and creates a natural bias toward projects that employ union labor.

The fund is an investor in the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust (HIT), a large fixed-income vehicle that finances multifamily housing construction nationwide. HIT mandates union labor on all job sites. For the annuity fund, this generates a dual return: a market-rate yield on pension assets and demonstrable job hours for NASRCC carpenters on HIT-funded projects across New England and beyond.

It does both. Disclosed commitments include direct participation in the ULLICO J for Jobs commercial real estate program and the AFL-CIO HIT. The fund also maintains a trustee-directed investment pool capable of holding direct real estate and other assets, giving the board flexibility to act without an intermediary when opportunity or local market knowledge warrants.

While the fund invests nationally through vehicles like the AFL-CIO HIT, its trustee-directed pool focuses on opportunities connected to the NASRCC's footprint: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and upstate New York. This local orientation allows the fund to deploy capital into projects that directly employ its contributing members.