Kansas Public Employees returns 7.4% for fiscal year

Kansas Public Employees Retirement System, Topeka, posted a net return of 7.4% for the fiscal year ended June 30.

The $25.6 billion pension fund's return fell below the policy benchmark return of 8.4% for the period, according to a performance report on its website.

For the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, the pension fund returned an annualized net 9%, 7.1% and 7.9%, respectively, above their respective benchmarks of 7.4%, 6.2% and 7.2%.

KPERS had returned a net -4.7% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2022.

The latest fiscal year's improved performance likely benefited from stronger market returns for the period in both equities and fixed income. For the year ended June 30, the Russell 3000 and Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond index returned 19% and -0.2%, respectively, well above their respective returns of -13.9% and -10.3% for the year ended June 30, 2022.

Of the 74 U.S. public pension funds whose fiscal-year returns have been tracked by Pensions & Investments as of Sept. 27, the median return for the period was 7.6%.

Returns by asset class were not provided in the performance report.

As of June 30, the actual allocation was 24.7% domestic equities, 23% international equities, 11.6% real estate, 11% alternatives, 10.5% real return, 9.5% fixed income, 5.6% yield-driven investments and the rest in cash.

The target allocation is 23.5% each domestic equities and international equities, 13% real estate, 11% real return, 10% fixed income, 9% alternatives, 6% yield-driven investments and 4% cash.