Illinois State Universities Retirement System, Champaign, returned a net 8.3% for the fiscal year ended June 30.
The $24.6 billion pension fund’s return fell short of the benchmark return of 9% for the period, according to an Oct. 24 news release.
For the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, SURS returned an annualized net 4%, 7.4% and 6.6%, respectively, above the respective benchmarks of 3.2%, 6.9% and 6.4%.
SURS had returned a net 5.3% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2023.
For the most recent fiscal year, the pension fund’s return fell short of the median return of 9.8% among the 79 public pension funds whose returns for the period have been tracked by Pensions & Investments as of Oct.30.
Among the pension fund’s asset classes, the top performer was SURS’ traditional growth asset class (which includes public equities), which returned a net 19.1% (above its benchmark of 18.4%); followed by non-traditional growth (which includes private equity and non-core real assets) at a net 4% (below its 16.3% benchmark); principal protection (core fixed income), 2.9% (equal to its 2.9% benchmark); stabilized growth (which includes private credit and core real assets), 2.7% (0.1%); inflation sensitive assets (Treasury inflation-protected securities), 2.7% (2.7%); and crisis risk offset ex-tail risk, 2.3% (-3.2%).
As of June 30, the actual allocation was 34.9% traditional growth, 17.7% non-traditional growth, 16.4% stabilized growth, 15.8% crisis risk offset, 9.3% principal protection, 4.5% inflation sensitive, 1.2% cash and transition and 0.2% overlay.
The target allocation is 36% traditional growth, 17% each crisis risk offset and stabilized growth, 15% non-traditional growth, 10% principal protection and 5% inflation sensitive.
