UFCW Local 1500

A board of trustees drawn from union leadership governs the pension fund. Robert Newell, President of UFCW Local 1500, serves as a Pension and Welfare Trustee, and Aly Waddy, the union's Secretary-Treasurer, serves as Pension Fund Trustee. The fund does not disclose the use of an external OCIO or investment consultant, suggesting allocation authority remains with the internal trustee board.

Secondaries allow a pension fund to purchase seasoned private-equity LP interests, often at a discount to net asset value, which can provide faster capital deployment and shorter duration than primary fund commitments. For a union plan of roughly $728M (Altss estimate), a secondary-heavy mandate may help manage vintage-year diversification, mitigate the J-curve, or avoid overcommitment to a single general partner — all relevant concerns for a mature defined-benefit plan managing liquidity for active and retired grocery workers.

The pension fund concentrates its portfolio in private-equity secondary transactions, which means it purchases existing LP stakes in funds rather than making direct company investments. In addition, the fund holds commingled real estate through American Core Realty vehicles and holds State of Israel Bonds as a sovereign-debt position. No direct co-investment program has been identified.

The pension fund is a multi-employer defined-benefit plan established for members of UFCW Local 1500, which represents grocery and food-processing workers primarily in New York's downstate counties. The fund is governed by a trustee board appointed from union leadership, and its assets are legally separate from union operating funds under ERISA. The union also maintains a charity fund and a scholarship trust fund, both distinct from the pension vehicle.

As a Taft-Hartley plan, UFCW Local 1500's pension fund files Form 5500 annually with the Department of Labor, which discloses asset values, contributions, and benefit payments. However, the fund does not publicly publish detailed investment returns, manager-by-manager performance, or its current funded ratio on its own website or press materials.

The secondary-market positions are predominantly US-focused, consistent with the underlying private-equity funds from which the LP interests are acquired. The real estate allocation is domestic through American Core Realty. The Israel Bonds holding is the fund's only explicit international fixed-income exposure, a position historically common among union pension plans with a long-standing relationship to the State of Israel development bond program.

At an estimated $728M (Altss estimate), the fund is mid-sized among New York-area multi-employer plans — smaller than the Teamsters or 1199SEIU funds but material within the UFCW network nationwide. Its secondary-heavy allocation posture is atypical; most peer union plans maintain more traditional 60/40 public-market splits with a modest private-markets sleeve rather than a portfolio dominated by secondary LP interests.