Utah Retirement Systems, Salt Lake City, returned 7.52% in calendar year 2014, surpassing its benchmark return by 151 basis points and meeting its actuarial assumed rate of return, URS announced Thursday.
Pension fund assets increased $1.5 billion over the year, ending 2014 at $26.6 billion. The pension fund was 88.5% funded as of Dec. 31, up from 86% at the end of 2013.
The top-performing asset class was private equity, which returned 18.9% over the year, followed by real assets at 13.99%; global debt securities, 6.94%; absolute return, 5.45%; global equity, 3.93%; and short-term securities, 0.09%.
As of Dec. 31, the pension fund had an asset allocation of 35.5% equity securities, 17.2% absolute return, 15.7% debt securities, 14% real assets, 11.8% private equity and 5.8% short-term securities.
For the three, five and 10 years ended Dec. 31, the pension fund returned an annualized 11.8%, 10.3% and 6.79%, respectively, outperforming its policy index for the three- and five-year periods by 141 and 107 basis points, respectively. In the 10-year period, the pension fund lagged its benchmark by two basis points.
In addition to its defined benefit plans, the retirement system administers a 401(k), 457(b), a traditional IRA and Roth IRA with about $4.5 billion in assets combined.
