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Gov. Code, § 31595 · Article 5. Financial Provisions

Gov. Code, § 31595

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

The board has exclusive control of the investment of the employees retirement fund. The assets of a public pension or retirement system are trust funds and shall be held for the exclusive purposes of providing benefits to participants in the pension or retirement system and their beneficiaries and defraying reasonable expenses of administering the system. Except as otherwise expressly restricted by the California Constitution and by law, the board may, in its discretion, invest, or delegate the authority to invest, the assets of the fund through the purchase, holding, or sale of any form or type of investment, financial instrument, or financial transaction when prudent in the informed opinion of the board.

The board and its officers and employees shall discharge their duties with respect to the system:

(a) Solely in the interest of, and for the exclusive purposes of providing benefits to, participants and their beneficiaries, minimizing employer contributions thereto, and defraying reasonable expenses of administering the system.

(b) With the care, skill, prudence, and diligence under the circumstances then prevailing that a prudent person acting in a like capacity and familiar with these matters would use in the conduct of an enterprise of a like character and with like aims.

(c) Shall diversify the investments of the system so as to minimize the risk of loss and to maximize the rate of return, unless under the circumstances it is clearly prudent not to do so.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Repealed and added by Stats. 1984, Ch. 1738, Sec. 7. Effective September 30, 1984.

Source of truth

Edition
As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Official file
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV&sectionNum=31595.
Text hash
sha256 4e17de8ce78e39381a6b1e1d007527d8a7202d785ea9811b53016bf8ec0f8ea0
Composed by
compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section

Cited by 6 provisions

Provisions in this library whose text cites Gov. Code, § 31595. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.

Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.