PSERS Reports Top-Tier Preliminary Investment Return for Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2022

HARRISBURG – The Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) today announced preliminary investment performance for the period ended June 30, 2022. PSERS earned a preliminary fiscal year investment return of a positive 2.28 percent, which was the top return for this period among its public pension peers tracked by Aon Investments.

 

Additionally, PSERS preliminary net return places it among the top five net returns among 80 U.S. pension funds that reported June 30, 2022, fiscal year net returns, according to a running tally by Pensions & Investments, a financial news, analysis, and research publication.

 

“Given the market turbulence over this past fiscal year, I am extremely proud of PSERS returns and the associated hard work and planning by all involved in the investment process,” PSERS Interim Chief Investment Officer Robert Devine stated.

 

For the quarter ended June 30, 2022, PSERS reported a preliminary return of minus 5.94 percent which reflected the adverse investment environment, and though down, was in the top decile of large public pension funds tracked by Aon Investments.

 

PSERS’ preliminary returns for other periods ended June 30, 2022, included a positive 8.82 percent for the three-year; a positive 8.47 percent for the five-year; and a positive 7.92 percent for the 10-year. PSERS’ three-year and five-year preliminary returns were top decile among its public pension peers in the Aon peer database.

 

“While we are pleased for our members and other constituent groups that our investment return for the fiscal year was a top return among our public pension peers, we are mindful that markets remain very turbulent and the investment environment highly uncertain,” said PSERS Chair Christopher Santa Maria. “We are mindful of risk, and remain conservative in our investment practices, while striving to beat our benchmarks each year and assumed rate of return of 7.00 percent over the long term.”

 

Following industry standards, PSERS’ published private equity and private real estate investment returns are lagged three months after the reporting period has ended due to the time required to gather and calculate certain private investments.

 

Final performance reports for the fiscal year and second quarter are expected to be completed by the end of October.

 

PSERS, founded in 1917, began operations in 1919 to oversee a statewide defined benefit pension plan for public school employees. PSERS' role expanded upon the passage of Act 5 of 2017 to include oversight of two new benefit options consisting of defined benefit and defined contribution (DC) components and a stand-alone DC plan. As of March 31, 2022, PSERS had total net assets of $75.9 billion and a membership of about 248,000 active, 243,000 retired school employees and 26,000 vested inactive members.

 

 

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