2012 South Carolina Code of Laws
Title 9 - Retirement Systems
Chapter 16 - RETIREMENT SYSTEM FUNDS
Section 9-16-360 - Standards of conduct for fiduciary or employee of fiduciary.

(A) In addition to and not in lieu of the provisions of Section 9-16-350 and Chapter 13 of Title 8, and for the purposes of this article, there are the standards of conduct provided in subsection (B) of this section that apply for a fiduciary or employee of a fiduciary.

(B) A fiduciary or employee of a fiduciary shall:

(1) take no action to purchase or acquire services or property for the commission or the retirement system where the fiduciary or employee of the fiduciary, their family, or their business associates have a financial interest in the services or property;

(2) take no action to invest retirement system funds in any share, or other security if the fiduciary or employee of the fiduciary, their family, or their business associates have an interest in, are underwriters of, or receive any fees from the investment;

(3) have no interest in the profits or receive any benefit from a contract entered into by the fiduciary;

(4) not use their positions to secure, solicit, or accept things of value, including gifts, travel, meals and lodging, and consulting fees for payment for outside employment, from parties doing or seeking to do business with or who are interested in matters before the fiduciary;

(5) not represent, while serving as or in the employment of the fiduciary and for one year after leaving the fiduciary, any person, in any fashion, before any public agency, with respect to any matters in which the fiduciary personally participated while serving as or employed by the fiduciary;

(6) not take any official action on matters that will result in a benefit to themselves, their family members, or their business associates;

(7) not, during or after their term of service, disclose or use confidential information acquired in their official capacity as fiduciary or employee of the fiduciary, without proper authorization;

(8) not use assets of the system for their own interests;

(9) not act on behalf of a party whose interests are adverse to the system or the fiduciary, even if the member receives no personal gain;

(10) not have any direct or indirect interest in the gains or profits of any system investment other than the indirect interest of a passive investor holding less than five percent of the outstanding equity in a publicly-traded security;

(11) not make investments through or purchases from, or otherwise do any business with a former fiduciary member or employee or with a business that is owned or controlled by a former fiduciary member or employee, for a period of three years after the fiduciary member or employee leaves the fiduciary.

The provisions of this subsection do not apply to an employee or affiliate of a fiduciary described in Section 9-16-10(4)(a) and (b) if the commission elects specifically to waive this application by written contract with such a fiduciary. The commission shall disclose any such waivers in its quarterly report.

(C) A breach of the standards provided in this section is grounds for the removal of a commission member as a conflict of interest pursuant to the Governor's removal powers under Section 1-3-240(C), for the dismissal of an employee of the commission, and in the case of a corporate fiduciary, at the commission's option, voiding any contract with the fiduciary.

HISTORY: 2005 Act No. 153, Pt IV, Section 3, eff July 1, 2005; 2006 Act No. 264, Sections 5.A, 5.B, eff May 2, 2006.