February 25, 2022
by Bob Jacksha
At the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board, investment earnings make up 56 cents of every dollar of employee pension benefits. Thus, investment performance is very important to the health of the pension fund.
For the 2021 calendar year, investments posted outstanding results, generating $3 billion in gains. This represents a 21.42% rate of return for the year. Asset values reached a new high at $16.7 billion. This ranked as one of the best returns for a US public pension fund for the year. It ranked in the top 3% of the InvMetrics Public Funds >$1 billion database.
For the longer term, the fund has posted returns in excess of our 7% annual return target for all periods measured: 3 years, 13.95%, 5 years 11.13%, 10 years 9.79%, 30 years 8.44%.
In addition to returns, we are equally mindful of our risk levels. Here we are also doing well because of our diversified portfolio strategy. We consistently rank in the lowest 5% of pension fund risk, as measured by the standard deviation of returns, a common measure of portfolio risk.
Complete information on investment performance may be found here: https://www.erb.nm.gov/investments/investment-performance/