CalPERS reported a 14.3% gain on invested assets for the first 10 months of its fiscal year as stocks soared to records.
The pension fund's performance through April, announced Wednesday by Theodore Eliopoulos, the senior investment officer for real assets, means the $259.8 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System, Sacramento, is set to top its assumed 7.5% rate of return for a second consecutive year. Its assets gained 13.3% in fiscal 2012, which ended June 30.
The increase so far this year “reflects very strong performance of public equity over the last 10 months,” Mr. Eliopoulos said at a board meeting. The S&P 500 had a total return of about 17% in the same period, touching 1,597.57 on April 30, a record that has since been eclipsed.
CalPERS' pre-recession high was $260.6 billion in assets, but the global financial crisis wiped out more than a third of its value. Local governments and state agencies have been forced to help make up the loss to cover benefits promised to public employees. The retirement system serves about 1.7 million members.
CalPERS, fully funded when the recession began in December 2007, had about 74% of the money needed to meet long-term commitments as of June 2011, the most recent figure available.
Mr. Eliopoulos took over day-to-day investment operations from Chief Investment Officer Joseph Dear, who is being treated for prostate cancer, the pension fund said June 14.
