51.1-124.30 - Board as trustee of funds; investments; standard of care; liability for losses.
§ 51.1-124.30. Board as trustee of funds; investments; standard of care;liability for losses.
A. The Board shall be the trustee of the funds of the Retirement System thatit administers and of those resulting from the abolished system. Subject tothe provisions of this chapter, the Board shall have full power to invest andreinvest such funds as authorized by law.
B. The Board shall have the power to borrow money in such amounts as may benecessary to discharge current obligations under this chapter whenever in itsjudgment it would be more advantageous to borrow money than to sellsecurities held by the Retirement System. Any debt so incurred may beevidenced by notes duly authorized by resolution of the Board, but in no caseis the due date of any note or other evidence of debt to be beyond the end ofthe biennium succeeding the biennium in which the debt is incurred.Securities held by the Retirement System may be hypothecated by the Board assecurity for the payment of any debt incurred under this section.
C. The Board shall discharge its duties with respect to the Retirement Systemsolely in the interest of the beneficiaries thereof and shall invest theassets of the Retirement System with the care, skill, prudence, and diligenceunder the circumstances then prevailing that a prudent person acting in alike capacity and familiar with such matters would use in the conduct of anenterprise of a like character and with like aims. The Board shall alsodiversify such investments so as to minimize the risk of large losses unlessunder the circumstances it is clearly prudent not to do so.
D. No officer, director, or member of the Board or of any advisory committeeof the Retirement System or any of its tax exempt subsidiary corporationswhose actions are within the standard of care in subsection C above shall beheld personally liable for losses suffered by the Retirement System oninvestments made under the authority of this chapter.
E. In the case of a plan administered by the Board which provides individualaccounts permitting an employee or beneficiary to exercise discretion overassets in his account, if the employee or beneficiary actually exercisesdiscretion over the assets in his account, the Board shall not be liable forany loss resulting from such employee's or beneficiary's exercise of control.
F. In the case of an automatic rollover of a mandatory cash-out, as that termis defined under I.R.C. § 401 (a) (31) (B) of the United States InternalRevenue Code of 1986 (including as such section is amended or renumbered, orany successor provision thereto) and regulations thereunder applicable togovernmental plans, the Board shall not be liable for any loss resulting fromthe Board's selection of an individual retirement plan provider andinvestment product where the selection is made in accordance with guidelinesto be adopted by the Board that are similar to the safe harbor guidelinesadopted by the United States Department of Labor for this purpose.
(1952, c. 157, § 51-111.24; 1954, c. 633; 1959, Ex. Sess., c. 47; 1962, c.50; 1972, c. 151; 1973, c. 523; 1976, c. 545; 1977, c. 620; 1978, c. 841;1980, cc. 559, 596; 1984, c. 430; 1990, c. 832, § 51.1-114; 1994, cc. 4, 85;1995, c. 788; 2000, c. 396; 2005, c. 729.)