State, Local Pension Investments Grow, Report Says

State and local pension plans’ investments showed robust growth for the 12-month period that ended June 30, Wilshire Associates reports. These plans’ investments showed median growth of almost 17%, the strongest growth since fiscal year 2011. 

The growth was fueled in large part by the improvement in the stock market’s performance. Plans that were invested more conservatively — especially smaller plans — did not realize as dramatic results, the report said. 

Larger plans showed the strongest growth. According to Wilshire, the investments of plans whose assets exceed $1 billion had median growth of 17.4%. The consulting firm attributed that at least in part to such plans allocating more of their investments to hedge funds, private equity and other alternative assets than did smaller plans.