Condition of Florida Retirement System improves

Last week the State Board of Administration released investment performance figures to Historic City News for Fiscal Year 2012-2013 showing that the Florida Retirement System Defined Benefit plan earned a 13.12% return — beating its benchmark by 111 basis points.

The plan, which provides a pension payment for the life of the vested participant, ended the year with a market value of $132.4 billion. This year-end market value represents a fund balance increase of $9.65 billion more than last year’s fiscal year-end figure.

“The strong long-term performance can be attributed to continued prudent diversification of assets, cost controls, and excellent fund manager selection,” Ash Williams, Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer for the State Board of Administration said.

Meanwhile, the Florida Retirement System Defined Contribution plan, which is an investment plan providing a flexible alternative to the traditional pension plan, posted year-end gains in returns and participation. The annual return based on aggregate employee fund selection was 10.12%, beating its benchmark of 9.68%.

During Fiscal Year 2012-2013, 26% of newly hired employees elected to join the investment plan and 5,722 pension plan members used their second election to switch to the investment plan resulting in a record high 150,721 member accounts.

Additionally, the Defined Contribution plan’s year-end assets of $7.9 billion were at a record level, representing an increase of approximately 10% over last year’s fiscal year-end figure.