Seattle City Employees' Retirement System posted a preliminary net return of -5.6% for the year ended June 30.
The $3.6 billion pension fund's preliminary return fell below its policy benchmark return of -4.9% for the period, according to a performance report posted on its website.
For the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, the pension fund returned a preliminary annualized net 7.7%, 7.4% and 8.1%, respectively, below their respective benchmarks of 7.8%, 7.6% and 8.3%.
The pension fund had returned a net 29.2% for the year ended June 30, 2021.
For the year ended June 30, SCERS' negative return reflects an overall challenging market environment for during the period. Of the 49 public pension plans tracked by Pensions & Investments as of Friday, the median return for the year ended June 30 was -4.7%.
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.
In the new performance report, asset class returns for infrastructure, private equity and real estate lagged by one quarter, as did the private credit portion of the credit fixed-income asset class.
For the fiscal year ended June 30, the pension fund's core fixed income asset class returned a net -10.5% (above its -10.3% benchmark); global equity, a net -11.6% (above its -15.5% benchmark); domestic equities, -13% (-13.9%); and international equities, -19.9% (-19.9%).
As of June 30, the actual allocation was 23.7% domestic equities, 18.6% core fixed income, 16.3% international equities, 14.4% private equity, 12.6% real estate, 6.9% credit fixed income, 4.8% global equity, 2.2% infrastructure, and the rest in cash and overlay.
SCERS' fiscal year ends Dec. 31.
