State pension fund slides
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008
By Staff
Despite a 12 percent drop in the past year, the system is solid, the state treasurer says
North Carolina's public pension fund has lost 12 percent over the past year — including $6 billion over the past three months — but State Treasurer Richard Moore said Monday that it remains fiscally solid.
The pension fund stood at $66 billion as of Sept. 30, according to the state's preliminary estimate.
"The retirees out there can rest assured that we've got plenty of money we can lay our hands on to make their retirement checks come every month just like they're supposed to," Moore said.
The state pension system provides benefits to 820,000 current and retired state employees, including teachers, police officers and fire fighters.
"We have short-term losses, but those losses are smaller than most funds of our size because of our conservative asset allocation," Moore said.
Over the same period that the state pension fund fell 12 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 index declined 24 percent, Moore said. The California state pension fund, he pointed out, has fallen 17 percent since June 30.
North Carolina's pension fund has 47 percent of its assets invested in stocks, compared with an average of 60 percent for all state pension funds. North Carolina has 41 percent invested in fixed-income assets such as bonds, versus an average of 30 percent. The state also invests in real estate and alternative investments, such as hedge funds. (more…)
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