Illinois Teachers' Retirement System's assets reached a new high of $63.9 billion thanks in part to a net return of 25.5% in the fiscal year ended June 30, showed a performance report from RVK, the Springfield-based pension fund's consultant.
In comparison, the retirement system returned 0.6% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020.
The defined benefit plan's 2021 return surpassed the 20.3% return of its policy benchmark in the most recent fiscal year, but annualized multiyear returns trailed their benchmarks over the three, five, seven, 10 and 20 years ended June 30, respectively, 9.9%, (benchmark, 10.8%); 10.1%, (10.4%); 7.7%, (8.4%); 8.4%, (8.9%); and 7.2%, (7.4%).
The pension's broad asset allocation as of June 30 was 51.6% global equity (including public and private equity); 24.7% global income (including public and private credit); 15% real assets (including real estate); and 8.7%diversifying strategies (including hedge funds and risk parity).
By asset class, private equity led returns with 57.2%, (benchmark, 48.4%); followed by global equity, 41% (40.9%); real assets, 19.6% (10.6%); real estate, 13.1% (7.4%); diversifying strategies, 8.6% (4.1%); and global income, 7.3% (-0.3%).
