Arkansas Teacher Retirement tops benchmark with 31.9% return

Arkansas Teacher Retirement System, Little Rock, returned a net 31.9% for the fiscal year ended June 30, confirmed Rod Graves, deputy director of the $21.2 billion pension fund, in an email.

The return was above its preliminary estimated return of 30% and slightly above its benchmark return of 31.2%.

Longer term, for the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, the plan returned a net 11.1%, 12.2% and 9.6%, respectively, compared to its respective benchmark returns of 12.8%, 12.2% and 10.1%.

The plan posted a net loss of 1% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020.

By asset class, equities topped the list with a net return of 47.4% for the fiscal year ended June 30 (vs. its benchmark return of 42%). After that, net returns were: private equity, 33.3% (vs. its benchmark of 65.9%); infrastructure, 21.2% (10.6%); opportunistic/alternatives, 10.4% (11.7%); agriculture, 6% (4.1%); real assets, 4.7% (2.4%); timber, 4.9% (1.6%); fixed income, 3.1% (1.1%); real estate, 0.8% (1.5%).

As of June 30, the retirement system had an allocation of 59.2% to equities, 12.7% private equity, 12.5% fixed income, 6.4% real estate, 4.4% opportunistic/alternatives, 1.5% infrastructure, 1.4% timber, 1% agriculture and the rest in cash.