Stanislaus County Employees tops benchmark with 24.6% return

Stanislaus County Employees' Retirement Association, Modesto, Calif., reported a preliminary net return of 24.6% for the fiscal year ended June 30.

The return exceeds the $2.7 billion pension fund's policy benchmark return of 23.1%, according to an investment report included with July 27 board meeting materials.

For the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, StanCERA reported annualized net returns of 9.9%, 10.4% and 8.5%, respectively, compared with the respective policy benchmark returns of 10.3%, 10% and 8.5%.

The pension fund returned a net 1.3% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020.

For the most recent fiscal year, the highest-performing asset class was domestic small-cap equities, with a preliminary net return of 68.6% for the fiscal year ended June 30 (above its 62% benchmark), followed by domestic large-cap equities at 46.2% (above its 43.1% benchmark).

Other asset class returns were private equity returning a preliminary net 43.7% (below its 48.4% benchmark); international equities, 38.7% (35.7%); risk parity, 19.9% (23.6%); core real estate, 12% (3.7%); value-added real estate, 10.2% (5.7%); cashflow-matched bonds, 1.7% (0.2%); private credit, -1 (13.9%); infrastructure, -1.7% (10.6%); and U.S. Treasuries, -4.1% (-4.4%)

As of June 30, the actual allocation was 19.7% international equities, 18.1% domestic large-cap equities, 14% risk parity, 8.5% core real estate, 7.9% private credit, 6.9% infrastructure, 5.3% U.S. Treasuries, 5.1% private equity, 5% cashflow-matched bonds, 4% domestic small-cap equities, 3.9% value-added real estate and the rest in cash.