Santa Fe – For the 2021 fiscal year ending June 30th, the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board (ERB) fund, posted investment gains of $3.6 billion, net of fees, to finish the year with total assets of $15.8 billion, a new high. The return was by far the highest ever dollar amount generated by the fund for a fiscal year. In terms of percentages, the return of 28.76% was the best since 1985 when the fund posted 31%. The fund was much smaller in 1985, however. Notably, the returns now exceed the actuarial target of an annual 7% average return in all time periods measured. In addition, the returns exceed the median public pension fund returns for all time periods while maintaining well below average risk. The fund also paid benefits of about $1.2 billion to retired New Mexico educational employees during the year and received contributions of approximately $780 million.
“Our investment staff did a terrific job of taking advantage of the opportunities presented by the marketplace while maintaining our low volatility asset allocation. The fiscal year results are not only a benefit to our participants’ retirement security but also benefit New Mexico taxpayers. Investment earnings make up more than half of each dollar of benefit payments. Without those gains, we would have to look elsewhere for benefit funding. We feel that our investment results validate our long-term strategy of building a lower volatility portfolio.” stated Educational Retirement Board Chief Investment Officer Bob Jacksha.
The June 30, 2021 net of fee returns for various time periods (annualized) are:
30 years 8.67%
10 years 8.61%
5 years 10.62%
1 year 28.76%
You may find the complete investment report on our website.
The educational retirement pension plan provides retirement benefit services to over 160,000 members ranging from public school teachers, administrators and staff to college faculty and staff who work for 216 educational employers.