Florida Retirement System returns -6.3% for fiscal year

Florida Retirement System, Tallahassee, returned a net -6.3% for the fiscal year ended June 30.

The $180 billion pension fund's return exceeded the benchmark return of -9.1% for the period, according to a performance report on the website of the Florida State Board of Administration, which oversees the pension fund's investments.

For the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, the pension fund returned an annualized net 7.7%, 7.7% and 8.6%, respectively, above the respective benchmarks of 5.7%, 6.2% and 7.4%.

The pension fund had returned a net 29.5% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021.

The latest fiscal-year returns for the Florida Retirement System reflect a challenging return environment for public equities and fixed income during the past year.

For the year ended June 30, the Russell 3000 index and Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond index returned -13.9% and -10.3%, respectively, in sharp contrast to returns of 44.2% and 4.6% for the year ended June 30, 2021.

Among the 56 U.S. public pension fund returns tracked by Pensions & Investments as of Thursday, the median return for the period was -5.4%.

The top-performing asset class for the fiscal year ended June 30 was private equity, which returned a net 24.2% (above its benchmark of -13.5%), followed by real estate at a net 22.4% (below its 22.9% benchmark); strategic investments, 7.8% (4%); fixed income, -8.1% (-7.9%); and global equities, -17.2% (-16.5%)

As of June 30, the actual allocation was 48.4% global equities, 17.7% fixed income, 11.3% real estate, 11.2% strategic investments, 10.2% private equity, and 1.2% cash and cash equivalents.

The Florida State Board of Administration oversees a total of $228 billion in state retirement plan, endowment, insurance and other assets.