(a) The members of the Vermont Pension Investment Committee established in 3 V.S.A. chapter 17 shall be the trustees of the Fund created by this chapter, and with respect to them may invest and reinvest the assets of the Fund, and hold, purchase, sell, assign, transfer, and dispose of the securities and investments in which the assets of the Fund have been invested and reinvested. Investments shall be made with judgment and care, under circumstances then prevailing, which persons of prudence, discretion, and intelligence exercise in the management of their own affairs, not for speculation, but for investment, considering the probable safety of capital as well as the probable income to be derived.

(b) From time to time, the Retirement Board shall set the rate or rates of regular interest at such percent rate compounded annually as shall be determined by the Board, such rate to be limited to a minimum of three percent and a maximum of five percent.

(c) The State Treasurer shall be the custodian of the assets of the Fund of the Retirement System. All payments from the Fund shall be made by the Treasurer or by the Deputy Treasurer, with approval of the Retirement Board. A duly attested copy of a resolution of the Retirement Board designating such persons and bearing on its face specimen signatures of such persons shall be filed with the State Treasurer as his or her authority for making payments upon such vouchers.

(d) [Repealed.]

(e) Except as otherwise herein provided, no trustee and no employee of the Retirement Board or Vermont Pension Investment Committee shall have any direct interest in the gains or profits of any investment made by the Committee, nor shall any trustee, member of the Committee, or employee of the Board or Committee, directly or indirectly, for himself or herself or as an agent, in any manner use the same except to make such current and necessary payments as are authorized by the Board or Committee; nor shall any trustee or employee of the Board or Committee become an endorser or surety, or in any manner an obligor, for monies loaned to or borrowed from the Board. (Added 1973, No. 251 (Adj. Sess.), § 3; amended 1981, No. 41, § 37; 1985, No. 171 (Adj. Sess.), § 5, eff. May 7, 1986; 1987, No. 80, § 10, eff. June 9, 1987; 1995, No. 118 (Adj. Sess.), § 2; 2005, No. 50, § 9; 2007, No. 13, § 45.)