An online resource now being built out has the potential to become an important intellectual hub for public-sector investment practitioners. They need to articulate what they most want to find there.
State and local government treasurers have their separate professional associations. The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) has its committee on treasury and investment management. There’s a corporate program for certified treasury professionals that awards credentials in that niche. But never before has there been a go-to online resource aspiring to provide ongoing intellectual leadership and a timely flow of fresh ideas and professional insights to both the public-sector professionals who handle government funds and their counterparts in the boutique private-sector money management industry that serves such jurisdictions. So it’s worth taking a peek at the relatively new Public Funds Investment Institute (PFII).
PFII is a nonprofit founded by Marty Margolis, the retired founder of one of the nation’s larger firms focused on public-sector money management. It’s characterized as his way to “give back” by establishing a neutral, noncommercial resource center for all the folks who have stumbled their way into the profession of managing megamillions or even billions of the nation’s $4 trillion of public funds.
There’s a logic to this idea, as nobody ever enters college with the life ambition to become a county treasurer, a municipal pension staffer or an outsourced public funds money manager. Generally the incumbents have found their way into such jobs by coincidence or default, with most of their training received on the job.
governing.com
Aug. 22, 2023 • Girard Miller