The Public School Employees’ Retirement System Tuesday reported the Fund’s investment performance for the 3rd quarter ended March 31 posted a positive return of 3.61 percent for the third quarter.
PSERS Chief Investment Officer James H. Grossman Jr. reported, “PSERS investment program posted strong returns this quarter and beat its policy benchmark while adding nearly $1.7 billion to the Fund. All of this was accomplished as the Fund continues to experience very large negative cash outflows.
“To meet these negative cash flow challenges, the Board and staff have improved the diversification of our assets and closely managed overall investment risk while working towards our primary goal of generating returns to meet or exceed our actuarial return assumption over the long-term,” said Grossman.
Grossman also commented on PSERS’ fiscal year-to-date return. “PSERS’ fiscal year-to-date performance remained robust during the 3rd quarter as the Fund earned 10.25 percent. PSERS beat the policy benchmark by 1.72 percent and added approximately $790 million in value added over the policy benchmark,” said Grossman.
“PSERS’ fiscal year ends on June 30th and we remain optimistic as the Fund continues on track to post a positive 4th quarter as well.”
In addition, PSERS reported returns of 9.02 percent for the one-year, 7.86 percent for the three-year, 13.12 percent for the five-year, and 6.90 percent for the 10-year periods ended March 31.
PSERS’ annualized 25 and 30 year returns through March 31 were 8.79 percent and 9.52 percent respectively, which exceed the assumed long-term actuarial investment rate of return for the same periods. PSERS’ current investment rate of return assumption is 7.50 percent.
Additional detailed investment performance for individual asset classes as of March 31 is available on PSERS’ website.
