The $51.6 billion Illinois Teachers' Retirement System, Springfield, returned a net 0.55% in the fiscal year ended June 30, trailing the 5.48% return of the fund's policy benchmark.
By comparison, the defined benefit plan's net return for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2019, was 5.15%, lagging the 7.16% return of the benchmark.
Over longer time periods ended June 30, annualized net returns of the system trailed those of the benchmark over the following time periods: three years, 4.66% (benchmark, 6.94%); five years, 5.23% (6.9%); seven years, 6.71% (7.86%); 10 years, 8.27% (9.05%); and 20 years, 5.78% (6.02%).
Net returns by asset class for the fiscal year ended June 30 were not available.
In an Oct. 30 news release issued in conjunction with a virtual meeting of the TRS board of trustees, TRS noted that assets under management as of June 30 were 3.4% lower than total assets at the end of June 2019 "due to the coronavirus effect."
Assets under management fell by $5.7 billion in the quarter ended March 31, but recouped $3.1 billion of the loss as of June 30, the final quarter of the system's fiscal year.
"Everyone took a hit in the early months of the pandemic, but the investment strategies we have in place limited losses and have allowed us to prudently rebuild the portfolio's value," said R. Stanley Rupnik, CIO and interim executive director, in the news release.
