Florida Retirement surpasses benchmark with 6.3% annual return

Florida Retirement System, Tallahassee, returned a net 6.26% for the fiscal year ended June 30, confirmed John Kuczwanski, spokesman for Florida State Board of Administration, which oversees the money management of the $163.1 billion pension fund.

The fiscal year return finished 59 basis points ahead of its primary benchmark return of 5.67%. For the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, the pension fund returned an annualized net 9.63%, 6.55% and 9.8%, respectively, above the respective benchmark returns of 8.9%, 5.7% and 8.8%.

The pension fund returned a net 8.98% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2018.

By asset class, private equity led the way with a net return of 15.25% (above its benchmark return of 7.55%), followed by real estate at a net 7.13% (above its benchmark return of 6.95%), fixed income at 6.82% (6.73%), strategic investments at 5.2% (5.06%), global equities at 4.98% (4.55%) and cash and cash equivalents at 2.33% (2.31%).As of June 30, the pension fund's actual allocation was: 54.8% global equities, 18.8% fixed income, 9.4% real estate, 8.6% strategic investments, 7.3% private equity and 1.1% cash and cash equivalents.

The target allocation is: 53% global equities, 18% fixed income, 12% strategic investments, 10% real estate, 6% private equity and 1% cash and cash equivalents.