State Investment Officer Matt Clark, left, and Steve Pietila of the South Dakota Investment Council speak to the South Dakota Legislature’s Joint Committee on Appropriations on Jan. 15, 2026, at the Capitol in Pierre. (Photo by Meghan O’Brien/South Dakota Searchlight)
PIERRE — South Dakota’s state investment officer will receive a salary raise and an opportunity for an incentive bonus that could push his total pay beyond $1 million for the next fiscal year, despite concerns from some lawmakers about underperformance.
Members of the legislative Executive Board voted 12-3 on Tuesday to approve the pay and bonus package, after the state’s Investment Council previously recommended it.
The Investment Council manages nearly $21 billion worth of total assets that fund the retirement system for public employees and also support the state budget, including health care and education trust funds. Clark told lawmakers he believes in a conservative approach to investing.
“We’re only going to be conservative, versus others, when the markets are above our estimates of fair value,” he said.
Clark compared his investment strategy to famed investor Warren Buffet: “buy low, sell high.”
Investment returns for the State Retirement System have been below its benchmark each of the last three years, and the cumulative returns over the past 10 years have also underperformed the benchmark. That’s been a factor in the system’s retirees receiving cost-of-living benefit adjustments less than inflation for five straight years. The system is still beating its benchmark returns over the longer term of 20 years and beyond.
Clark said the council has been avoiding investments in major tech companies and artificial intelligence, which have become “expensive and overvalued,” he said.
The council acted similarly in the late 1990s to avoid the worst effects of the “dot-com” bubble, Clark told lawmakers.
House Majority Leader Scott Odenbach, R-Spearfish, cast a “no” vote Tuesday on Clark’s compensation package.
“At some point we are going to get questions from state employees, and from people who have a significant amount of their retirement invested in this,” Odenbach said. “Is that the wisest way forward? Can we as the policymakers answer to those who are looking to us and say, ‘Are you doing your job to make sure we’re getting the returns?’”
Clark currently makes a salary of $647,723. His new salary will begin July 1, the start of the 2027 fiscal year. He will receive an increase of 1.4% with all other state employees as budgeted by the Legislature, which will bring his salary to $656,791.
The investment performance incentive plan approved by the Executive Board could provide Clark up to 200% of his salary as a bonus, after the performance of the State Retirement System fund is audited and other performance indicators are taken into account. The council weighs its performance against a Capital Markets Benchmark, which is an index that can be used as a comparison to measure an investment portfolio’s results.
The average bonus for Clark is about 80%, he said. That would be a little more than $525,000 on top of his new salary. At 200%, the maximum allowed bonus, Clark could see an additional $1.3 million, “which is almost impossible to achieve,” he said.
Last fall, Clark received a little more than $125,000 as a bonus for performance during the 2025 fiscal year, on top of a salary from the same fiscal year of about $640,000, resulting in total compensation of more than $765,000.
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