Hawaiian Electric Industries Retirement Plan

Hawaiian Electric Industries Retirement Plan

The Retirement Plan for Employees of Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. and Participating Subsidiaries functions as a corporate defined-benefit pension fund sponsored by NYSE-listed Hawaiian Electric Industries (HEI). The plan covers eligible employees across HEI's primary operating subsidiaries — Hawaiian Electric Company, Maui Electric Company, and Hawaii Electric Light Company — which collectively serve 95% of Hawaii's population. Until 2007, it also included employees of American Savings Bank, one of the state's largest financial institutions, before that subsidiary's plan was frozen. The plan's investment strategy reflects the liability profile of a mature defined-benefit fund: emphasis on long-duration fixed income to match benefit obligations, complemented by public equity allocations for growth. Hawaiian Electric Industries reported $840 million in total pension plan assets across its defined-benefit plans in its 2023 10-K filing — with $777 million in equities and fixed income securities and $56 million in real estate (per SEC filings, 2023). A distinctive feature is the plan's direct Hawaii commercial real estate exposure through BlackSand Capital and the internally held HEI Common Stock Fund, which includes shares of the sponsoring company itself. Governance sits with HEI's corporate treasury and investment committee, though named fiduciaries and day-to-day investment staff are not publicly disclosed. The plan's 2023 SEC filings show a funding status of $882 million in projected benefit obligations against $840 million in plan assets, reflecting ongoing pension risk management challenges common to utility-sector plans. In May 2024, Hawaiian Electric Industries updated its 10-Q to reflect post-Maui wildfire liabilities and ongoing regulatory proceedings, which may pressure plan sponsor contributions if utility subsidiary financials weaken. This plan's structural differentiator is its rare multi-industry coverage under a single pension trust — uniting utility workers, operations staff, and former bank employees across islands with distinct economic profiles. Unlike stand-alone utility pensions or financial-sector plans, HEI's retirement vehicle must balance obligations to a workforce split between regulated monopoly energy operations and competitive banking, a legacy of the holding company's 1993 consolidation of its Hawaiian Electric and American Savings Bank subsidiaries into one entity.