Florida Retirement System returns 14%

The FRS Pension Fund, the largest mandate for the Florida State Board of Administration (SBA), increased by $9.7bn to $109.34bn over the year to June 30 after net payments of $4.5bn to retirees.

Executive director and chief investment officer Ash Williams said: "Exceeding the benchmark return by 251 basis points, this past year's return marks the greatest return over benchmark for the FRS pension plan in the last 25 years.

"The fiscal year results show a promising rebound from the near-term volatility of 2008, and pushed the FRS 20, 25 and 30 year returns to 8.18%, 8.98% and 9.56% respectively."

Returns for each of the asset classes were: domestic equities 15.89%; foreign equities 14.18% fixed income 14.89%; high yield 19.61%; real estate -10.15%; private equity 21.52%; strategic investments 28.88%; and cash 1.96%.

The FRS Investment Plan, the optional retirement plan for state employees, also posted year-end gains. With over 127,000 participants, the fund exceeded $5bn in assets for the first time.

The non-contributory plan is self-directed with members allocating their account balance among a set of 20 low cost institutional and mutual fund investment options. Vesting in the plan is one year and distribution options include lump sums, periodic distributions and a variety of fixed and variable annuities.