NYS pension fund has largest- ever annual investment return

Fund returned 33.55 percent in latest fiscal year, ending March 31

ALBANY, N.Y. — The New York State Common Retirement Fund’s estimated overall investment return was 33.55 percent for the state fiscal year (SFY) that ended March 31.

The figure reflects the financial markets’ “dramatic rebound” from the late March, 2020 lows reached during the COVID-19 pandemic, the office of New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced May 26. 

The return on investments increased the fund’s value to an estimated $254.8 billion.

“The state pension fund rode the market rebound from the depths of the pandemic and enjoyed the largest one-year investment return in its history,” DiNapoli said. “This outsized return reinforces the fund’s position as one of the strongest in the nation, but it comes with a caution. Markets remain volatile and as unpredictable as ever.”

The fund’s value reflects retirement and death benefits of $13.66 billion paid out during the fiscal year.

Employer-contribution rates are determined by investment results over a multi-year period along with numerous other actuarial assumptions. Those assumptions include wage growth, inflation, age of retirement, and mortality. 

Contribution rates are determined based on recommendations from the retirement system’s actuary in September. State and local governments, which consistently pay their contributions “in good times and bad” are “integral to the fund’s strength,” DiNapoli’s office noted.

As of March 31, the fund had 52.82 percent of its assets invested in publicly traded stocks, which produced investment returns exceeding 60 percent in the last fiscal year. The remaining fund assets by allocation are invested in cash, bonds, and mortgages (23.14 percent), private equity (10.57 percent), real estate and real assets (8.24 percent), and credit, absolute-return strategies, and opportunistic alternatives (5.23 percent).

The fund’s long-term expected rate of return is 6.8 percent, according to DiNapoli’s office.

The New York State Common Retirement Fund is the third largest public pension fund in the U.S., per DiNapoli’s office. 

The fund holds and invests the assets of the New York State and Local Retirement System on behalf of more than 1 million state and local government employees and retirees and their beneficiaries.