Local public retirement systems in Texas continue to meet or exceed long-term public fund investment benchmarks, according to a report released Monday at the Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems' annual educational conference in Corpus Christi, Texas.
The TEXPERS report found that most municipal pension plans outperform the Wilshire median public fund for previous 10- and 15-year time periods, both as of Sept. 30. For the 20-year period ended Sept. 30, the plans had an average 8% return, compared to the 8.2% average actuarial return assumption for all public pension funds. However, for the 21 years ended Sept. 30, a $100 investment in the survey respondents' aggregate portfolio would have grown to $557, exceeding the $519 from the 8.2% return assumption.
The $3 billion Dallas Police & Fire Pension System had the highest average yearly performance for a 20-year period among TEXPERS members, at 9.12%, followed by the $935 million El Paso Firemen & Policemen Pension Fund, 8.57%; and the $1.9 billion Houston Municipal Employees Pension System, 8.4%.
Survey respondents had a $21.4 billion total market value, with an average asset allocation of 27.8% fixed income; 25.5% domestic equity; 16.1% international equity; 12.8% other; 10.4% real estate; and 7.4% private equity.
TEXPERS is an organization with a membership of more than 80 pension plans with a combined $22 billion in assets.
TEXPERS officials were not available for comment on the report.
