Texas Public Employee Pensions Perform Well in 2011

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas, March 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Public employee retirement systems across Texas continue to meet or exceed long-term public fund benchmarks, according to a report released today at the 23rd Annual Conference of the Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems.

TEXPERS' "Report on the Asset Allocation and Investment Performance of Texas Public Employee Retirement Systems" confirmed that most local pensions continue to outperform the Wilshire Median Public Fund for previous 10- and 15-year time periods, and compare favorably at an 8.0% return to the 8.2% average actuarial return assumption for the 20-year period. For 21-years, a $100 investment in the survey respondents' aggregate portfolio on September 30, 1990 would have grown to $557 on September 30, 2011, exceeding the $519 invested at the 8.2% average actuarial return assumption.

"We continue to see that Texas' local pensions perform very well using their long-term time horizons to deliver sound asset management for public sector employees," said Max Patterson, the executive director for TEXPERS, an organization with more than 80 pension plans for firefighter, police, municipal and district employees, representing nearly 300,000 individuals. "City governments and their taxpayers should understand that this type of performance helps keep tax rates as low as possible while also attracting and retaining high caliber employees over long periods of time."

TEXPERS released the report to pension Trustees and administrators gathered at its educational conference titled "Sustaining Long-term Success in an Unstable Market." The conference is notching an all-time attendee record with 596 registrations, compared to the 559 record marker set in 2009.

"Our members are highly dedicated and motivated individuals who take their fiduciary responsibility very seriously, as evidenced by strong rates of performance returns and their attendance at our conferences," Patterson said. He acknowledged the following standout systems for their average yearly performance over the 20-year period ending in September 2011:

The report noted that survey respondents had a $21.4 billion total market value, with average asset allocations of 25.5% percent in U.S. equity, 16.1% in non-U.S. equity, 27.8% in fixed income, 10.4% in real estate, 7.4% in private equity and 12.8% in other asset classes.

About TEXPERs
The Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems (TEXPERS) is a statewide voluntary nonprofit association to provide quality education to trustees, administrators, professional service providers and employee groups and associations engaged or interested in the management of public employee retirement systems. Today, TEXPERS' member systems represent approximately 300,000 active and retired participants and approximately $22 billion in assets. Learn more at www.TEXPERS.org or www.TEXPERS.blogspot.com.

SOURCE Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems