HARRISBURG, PA – The Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) demonstrated strengths in member outreach and secure online services in an independent benchmarking report, reflecting the system’s ongoing commitment to supporting informed retirement decisions.
The 2025 CEM Benchmarking report, which was presented to PSERS’ Board of Trustees during its Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, meeting, is an annual independent review comparing member service and pension administration costs for similarly sized public retirement systems.
The report identified strengths in PSERS’ targeted communications across multiple member groups, including proactive outreach to members when important retirement-related actions require member attention.
Supporting those outreach efforts, the report found that PSERS maintains email addresses for more than 90% of members, compared with a peer average of 77%.
Another strength was secure online services, including above-peer use of the secure member website by active members, increased use by inactive members, and secure online services for retiring members and annuitants.
The report’s findings reinforce PSERS’ broader commitment to member communications. In a separate recognition of those efforts, PSERS recently received the National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators Leadership Award for its personalized communications campaign for Defined Contribution Plan members.
“Helping members stay informed means more than passively responding to questions,” said PSERS Board of Trustees Chair Richard Vague. “It means proactively reaching out when important retirement-related actions are needed and providing secure online resources throughout the retirement journey. These findings reflect our ongoing commitment to connecting members with the information and resources they need.”
Vice Chair Susan Lemmo said the report also provides another example of PSERS’ commitment to serving its members.
“Our members are at the center of everything PSERS does,” Lemmo said. “This benchmark helps us ensure the system continues to meet the needs of our members and maintain a high standard of service. We are always looking for ways to improve our service levels for members in an efficient manner.”
While the report recognized strengths in several key areas, it also identified opportunities for continued improvement, such as increasing online functionality and secure document upload.
“Continuous improvement is an important part of our commitment to our members,” said Ann Monaghan, Chair of the PSERS Board of Trustees Benefits and Appeals Committee. “This independent benchmarking report provides valuable insights that help us build on our strengths while identifying opportunities to better meet the needs of our members.”
In other business, the board approved new investment commitments in the amounts of $150 million to American Industrial Partners Capital Fund IX, $150 million to the Resolute Fund VII, $100 million to Trinity Hunt Partners VIII and $100 million to EQT Exeter Industrial Core-Plus Fund V.
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About the Board of Trustees
The 15-member Board of Trustees is an independent administrative board of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The board stands in a fiduciary relationship to PSERS’ members regarding investments and disbursements of the system’s funds. The board’s other functions outlined in the Public School Employees’ Retirement Code include certifying contribution rates, authorizing the system’s actuarial valuation and independent audit, publishing an annual financial statement, and overseeing the operational activities performed by the system’s executive director and chief investment officer.
About the Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System
PSERS, founded in 1917, began operations in 1919 to oversee a statewide defined benefit pension plan for public school employees. PSERS' role expanded upon the passage of Act 5 of 2017 to include oversight of two new benefit options consisting of defined benefit and defined contribution (DC) components and a stand-alone DC plan. As of June 30, 2025, PSERS had a total net position of about $83.7 billion and a membership of about 262,000 active, 255,000 annuitants and beneficiaries, and 26,000 vested inactive members.