Nebraska Investment Council posts -8.6% fiscal-year return

The five defined benefit plans overseen by the Nebraska Investment Council, Lincoln, returned a net -8.6% for the fiscal year ended June 30.

The plans, which have a combined $14.8 billion in assets, exceeded their -11.5% benchmark.

For the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, the pension funds returned an annualized gross 6.7%, 7% and 8.4%, above the respective benchmarks of 5.4%, 6.3% and 7.8%.

During a much different economic environment, the funds returned 29.9% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021.

For the most recent fiscal year, the best-performing asset class was private equity, which had a return of 31.6% (above its benchmark of -11.6%), followed by real estate at 25.2% (28.4%); fixed income at -10% (-11.6%); U.S. equity at -13.3% (-14.2%); global equity at -14% (-16.5%); and non-U.S. equity at -19.7% (-19.9%).

As of June 30, the actual allocation was 30.8% fixed income, 25.2% U.S. equity, 18.9% global equity, 10.3% non-U.S. equity, 7.6% private equity, 7.1% real estate and the rest in cash.