Above-average equity exposures paid off for the New York City Retirement Systems in 1995, pushing the funds well into the top 25% of the Trust Universe Comparison Service universe.
The New York City funds were, on average, 54% invested in U.S. equities and 9% in international equities for a total equity exposure of 63%. They had 1% in international bonds, 35% in U.S. fixed income and 1% in cash, as of Dec. 31.
In fact, the New York City funds had more in U.S. equities than the average public employee retirement fund among the 200 largest funds profiled in Pensions & Investments' Jan. 22 issue had in total equities. The average public fund was 52.4% in equities. The average corporate top 200 fund was 62.6% in stocks.
As a result of the above average equity exposure, the $27.25 billion New York City Employees' Retirement System had a return of 28.9% for the year, the $10.8 billion Police Retirement System was up 28.33%, the $4 billion Fire Employees Retirement System was up 28.5%, the $16.9 billion Teachers' Retirement System was up 27.08%, and the $1.1 billion Board of Education Retirement System was up 28.2%.
Jon Lukomnik, third deputy comptroller, said just more than 80% of the equities were indexed to the Russell 3000 index.
Mr. Lukomnik also noted the retirement systems were helped by the fact they are mature and have negative cash flows, meaning "we have to do a rolling rebalance each month."
