Town of Palm Beach Retirement System

Town of Palm Beach Retirement System

The Town of Palm Beach Retirement System serves sworn police officers, certified firefighters, and general employees through a defined benefit plan and a hybrid option that folds in a 401(a). Police and fire personnel remain in the traditional pension, while general employees access a combined defined benefit and defined contribution structure. The plan also sponsors a retirement health savings program, an optional Roth IRA, and an optional 457 deferred contribution plan. The system deploys capital primarily through commitments to external real estate limited partnerships. Known fund positions include Long Wharf Real Estate Partners Fund V and Westport Real Estate Fund IV, both targeting commercial assets, and Green Cities Company III, a mixed-use vehicle. Liquid reserves alongside a position in JP Morgan Strategic Property round out the property sleeve. These commitments concentrate exposure in US commercial and mixed-use sectors without direct operating-company allocations. A ten-member volunteer board governs the system, blending appointed and ex-officio roles under Chair Daniel Stanton and Vice Chair C. Edward Carter. Bob Miracle serves ex-officio as the town's finance director. The board maintains ties to the Florida Public Pension Trustees Association, the state's primary trustee network. Recent trustee appointments have drawn from the town's administrative and civic leadership, preserving close alignment with municipal governance. The dual-plan architecture creates an unusual structural tension: a closed traditional defined benefit plan for uniformed personnel sits alongside an open hybrid plan that shifts longevity risk to general employees. This split forces the board to manage two distinct liability profiles within a single roughly $230 million pool, a narrow but persistent governance challenge for a municipality of Palm Beach's scale.