Overview of the Town of Leesburg Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) Trust and the OPEB Finance Board

The Town of Leesburg Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) Trust and the OPEB Finance Board were formed by Town Council action under statutory provisions of the Commonwealth of Virginia for OPEB trusts on June 14, 2016.  The OPEB Trust holds assets irrevocably contributed by the Town for the provision of future retiree health care benefits.  Substantially advance funding these future benefits as they are earned by the employees is considered a best practice by the Government Finance Officers Association and has greatly lessened the financial burden of funding the benefits in the Town’s annual operating budgets.  

The Town created its own independent OPEB Trust because it believed that it could materially outperform pooled alternatives with less risk and lower fees through passive indexed management of domestic equities.  From inception to date, this has proven to be the case.

The Town Council created the OPEB Finance Board at the same time as it created the Trust to independently govern and oversee the investment and protection of the assets.  The OPEB Finance Board members are charged in their roles to perform their duties for the sole fiduciary benefit of the current employees and retirees who are vested in the OPEB benefits.  This means that the Finance Board members cannot consider the benefit of the Town, vendors or any other party in the performance of their OPEB Finance Board duties.  Their sole focus must be to the benefit of the vested employees.  The OPEB benefits were closed to new participants for employees hired after April 1, 2016.  The Town Council designated the following to be the voting members of the OPEB Finance Board:

• The Town Manager or designee (currently the Town Deputy Director of Finance/Controller is designated)
• The Assistant Town Manager / Chief Financial Officer (Director of Finance)
• The Deputy Director of Finance/Treasurer
• The Management and Budget Officer
• The Human Resources Director
• A person designated by Davenport & Company LLC (The Town’s Financial Advisor).  This position is presently held by Joe Mason, a Leesburg resident.

The Investment Consultant (an advisory firm selected via Request for Proposal) appoints a representative to serve as Investment Consultant and as a nonvoting/ex officio member of the Finance Board.  This Consultant presents financial results of the investment of the Trust’s assets each quarter to the Finance Board.  The current Investment Consultant for the Trust is PFMAM, LLC. a quasi-independent subsidiary of U.S. Bank.  PFMAM, LLC was an independent entity when selected in 2016 and merged with U.S. Bank in 2022.  U.S. Bank’s Trust Institutional Trust and Custody division was selected to serve as the fiduciary custodian of the Trust’s assets and firewalls are maintained between the two divisions.  Nelson Bush is the PFMAM, LLC principal currently assigned to the Town’s OPEB Trust.

The Board meetings are open to the public and meeting agendas, meeting minutes and meeting recordings are posted on the Town’s website.  The Finance Board is regularly scheduled to meet at 10:00 AM on the third Friday of the second month after the end of each calendar quarter.  Meetings may be rescheduled due to inclement weather or lack of a quorum.  Meeting times and agendas are posted in advance on the Town’s boards in Town Hall and the website.  Accessibility and remote attendance are governed by the same provisions as all other Town open public meetings. 

Board Documents and Links

Meeting Agendas

Meeting Minutes

Quarterly Reports

Meeting Recordings

All meetings of the OPEB Finance Board are recorded and the recordings are available for viewing in the Webcast video archive.