Retirement Plan for Employees of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences

Retirement Plan for Employees of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences

The Retirement Plan for Employees of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences exists as the defined-benefit pension for the professional staff of the organization that awards the Oscars. Governed by the Academy's own finance leadership — Treasurer Jim Gianopulos, CFO Andrew Horn, and CEO Bill Kramer — the plan provides participants with a monthly retirement benefit upon reaching a specific age, calculated based on years of credited service and compensation. The benefit is structured as a lifetime annuity for each retiree. As a private defined-benefit plan, the pension's investment strategy and asset allocation are not publicly disclosed. The Academy itself maintains substantial real assets, including its headquarters at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Wilshire Boulevard, the Margaret Herrick Library on La Cienega Boulevard, and the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study on Vine Street in Hollywood — properties that represent significant institutional holdings separate from the retirement plan's own portfolio. The plan is a corporate pension within the Media & Entertainment sector, benefiting from the Academy's century-long institutional durability. The plan is administered under the oversight of the Academy's SVP and Controller, E. Lake Setzler III, with governance from the Academy's Finance Committee. No recent amendments, funding-status updates, or investment-consultant mandates have been publicly reported. The plan has not disclosed a separate investment office or external OCIO relationship, making its day-to-day asset management opaque to outside observers. Its professional staff headcount and total assets remain unstated in any public filing or communication. The structural differentiator for this plan is its housing inside one of the world's most culturally visible nonprofit organizations rather than a manufacturing conglomerate or municipal government. The Academy is a professional honorary organization with over 8,000 film-industry members, and the Michael B. and Catherine M. Quinn Simonds Academy Foundation provides a linked philanthropic vehicle entirely separate from the pension's fiduciary obligations. This creates a governance architecture where the retirement plan for the Academy's working staff reports to the same board officers who oversee the Oscars broadcast and the Academy Museum, without the transparency requirements of a public pension or the filing obligations of an ERISA plan on a corporate 10-K.