New York State”™s $150.3 billion pension fund increased in value by nearly 6 percent during the state”™s 2011-2012 fiscal year but still fell short of its target growth, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli reported.
Between April 1, 2011, and March 31, 2012, the New York State Common Retirement Fund ”“ the nation”™s third-largest public pension fund ”“ earned an estimated 5.96 percent rate of return.
That comes after the fund, in September 2010, lowered its assumed long-term investment rate of return from 8 percent to 7.5 percent.
“The financial markets took investors on an up-and-down ride last year, but the New York State Common Retirement Fund”™s diversified investment portfolio coupled with a long-term view have helped us to weather these large swings,” DiNapoli said in a statement.
DiNapoli is sole trustee of the state”™s pension fund.
He said that at $150.3 billion, the fund”™s estimated value is at its highest level since the global recession in the state”™s 2008-2009 fiscal year.
“Over the last three years, the fund has experienced strong gains during a period of economic instability,” he said. “We remain one of the strongest pension funds in the country.”
The fund has yet to reach its peak of $154.5 billion, reached during the 2007-2008 fiscal year, but has recovered nicely since falling to $110 billion in 2009.
The state retirement system provides benefits to about one million active and retired state and local employees outside of New York City. The city has its own retirement system for public employees.
Among the strongest-performing areas of the fund were its real estate assets, which returned at 17.6 percent, its fixed income assets, which returned at 9 percent, and its private equity assets, which returned at 8.3 percent.
