North Dakota has officially pulled back the curtain on its $15 billion Legacy Fund, launching a new digital portal designed to show taxpayers where their oil-tax-funded wealth is growing. While state officials herald the site as a win for transparency, a key lawmaker behind the push is already signaling that the public is still being kept in the dark on critical details.
A New Window into State Wealth
The North Dakota Retirement and Investment Office (RIO) rolled out the new website, legacyfund.nd.gov, this week. Built by Washington, D.C.-based firm Tactis with backend support from Fargo’s Devii, the platform offers an interactive look at a fund that has become a pillar of the state’s long-term fiscal strategy. Financed by 30% of the state’s oil and gas production and extraction taxes since its inception in 2010, the fund is valued at just over $15 billion.
The site allows users to filter investments by asset class, sector, and geography. Kelly Armstrong expressed satisfaction with the launch during a joint meeting of the Legacy and Budget Stabilization Fund Advisory Board and the State Investment Board on October 28, 2026. He noted that the site strikes a balance between providing meaningful data and avoiding the noise of daily market fluctuations.
“I think it’s great,” Armstrong said. “We’ll continue to improve on it, but it gives you exactly enough information to not be superficial.”
The Transparency Gap
For Representative Bernie Satrom, R-Jamestown, the sleek interface doesn’t compensate for the missing pieces of the puzzle. Satrom, who sponsored House Bill 1319 during the 2025 legislative session to increase transparency, argues that the state is still failing to provide the level of granular detail the public deserves.
The central point of contention lies in what the state calls “pooled, multiregion vehicles.” According to the new website, roughly $3.89 billion—or 26% of the fund’s total holdings—is tied up in these commingled funds. Because this money is mixed with investments from other entities, the underlying assets remain opaque. The RIO maintains that this strategy is essential for increasing capital and securing higher returns, but it effectively hides the specific companies or debt instruments that North Dakota tax dollars are supporting.
“If those figures are accurate, roughly one out of every five dollars in this portfolio remains beyond the public’s clear view. Why is that acceptable?” Satrom asked in an email to the Tribune.
The Limits of Open Records
The frustration over the visibility of these holdings is not new. Previous requests for information regarding the specific investments within these commingled funds have been met with the same answer from the RIO: the records simply do not exist. North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley recently backed the RIO’s position, concluding that state law does not require the office to create records that it does not already possess.
Concerns have previously been raised about state dollars flowing into contentious areas, such as Russian government debt or companies with links to the Chinese military. In 2022, reporting from The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead highlighted that the Legacy Fund held $8.5 million in investments with ties to Russia, a figure that showed the potential risks of blind, pooled investment vehicles.
Officials Weigh Investment Returns Against Transparency Goals
Governor Armstrong has acknowledged a desire to eventually reduce the reliance on commingled funds, though he cautioned against making moves that could diminish the fund’s competitive performance. Representative Jonathan Warrey, R-Casselton, echoed the need for a pragmatic approach, suggesting that the state must find a middle ground between total transparency and the realities of modern institutional investing.
As the state looks toward the 2027 legislative session, the conversation is shifting from whether the fund should be transparent to how much the state is willing to sacrifice in potential yield to achieve that clarity. For now, the dashboard provides a view of where the money is going, but it leaves open the question of what else is being held in the shadows.
