Rhode Island Employees nets 8.9% return for fiscal year

Rhode Island Employees Retirement System, Providence, returned a net 8.9% for the fiscal year ended June 30, above its policy benchmark return of 7.1%, according to a monthly investment report from the Rhode Island State Investment Commission.

For the three, five, 10 and 15 years ended June 30, the $10.5 billion pension fund returned an annualized net 10.5%, 8.3%, 7.8% and 6.6%, respectively, above their respective benchmarks of 9.7%, 7.4%, 7.2% and 6.2%.

The pension fund had returned a net -1.4% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2022.

For the 12-month period ended June 30, 2023, the top-performing asset class was global equities, which returned a net 16.9% (slightly above its 16.5% benchmark return).

Income assets returned a net 9.8% (above the portfolio's benchmark return of 9.1%); private growth assets returned a net 5% (-5.2% for the benchmark); volatility protection assets returned a net 4% (2.1% benchmark); inflation-protection assets returned a net 3.9% (1.7% ); and crisis protection assets returned a net -1.8% (3.2% ).

As of June 30, the actual allocation was 38.8% global equity, 18.5% private growth, 13.8% volatility protection, 11.3% income, 8.7% crisis protection, 7.5% inflation protection and the rest in other.