DiNapoli: nearly 2 percent return on state pension fund during fiscal Q3

ALBANY, N.Y. — The overall return in New York’s common retirement fund during the third quarter of the state fiscal year 2015 was 1.91 percent for the three-monthperiod ending Dec. 31.

It brings the estimated value of the state pension fund to $181.7 billion.

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced the fund’s quarterly performance in a news release posted to his office’s website on Friday.

“Prudent management has nurtured the fund’s growth despite market volatility,” DiNapoli said in the news release. “We continue to seek out diverse opportunities that enable us to maximize stable, long-term investment returns that ensure a secure retirement.”

The fund’s estimated value reflects benefits paid out during the quarter. Its value was $176.8 billion as of the end of the state fiscal year on March 31, 2014, DiNapoli’s office said.

Nearly 40 percent of the state pension fund’s assets are invested in publicly traded domestic equities and 13.2 percent invested in international public equities.

In addition, 29 percent of the remaining assets are invested in cash, bonds, and mortgages; more than 7 percent in private equity; more than six percent in real estate; more than 3 percent in absolute return and opportunistic alternatives; and less than 1 percent invested in real assets, DiNapoli’s office said.

DiNapoli initiated the state pension fund’s quarterly performance reporting in 2009 “as part of his on-going efforts to increase accountability and transparency,” his office added.

New York’s common retirement fund is the third largest public pension fund in the U.S.

It holds and invests the assets of the New York state and local retirement system on behalf of more than one million state and local government employees and retirees and their beneficiaries.

The fund has “consistently” been ranked as one of the “best managed and best funded” plans in the nation, DiNapoli’s office said.

Over the past 20 years, investment returns have funded 82 percent of the cost of benefit payments, it added.

The fiscal year for the state pension fund ends March 31, the news release said.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com