Blog
Virginia Retirement System Trust Fund's Assets Rise
Making a dramatic rebound, the Virginia Retirement System Trust Fund's assets topped $100 billion for the fiscal year that ended June 30, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.
Virginia Retirement System Trust Fund's Assets Rise
Making a dramatic rebound, the Virginia Retirement System Trust Fund's assets topped $100 billion for the fiscal year that ended June 30, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.
The return on investment for the full fiscal year is still being finalized, but the preliminary $18 billion increase in the trust fund's assets represents a 22% rise from a year ago, the newspaper reported. As a result, contribution rates for state and local government employers should remain stable when Gov. Ralph Northam unveils a two-year budget in December.
“The health of the trust fund is strong,” O'Kelly McWilliams, an employment attorney who serves as chairman of the VRS board of trustees, told the newspaper. The trustees set pension contribution rates for state employees, teachers and other state and local government workers in the fall.
“It's going to be one of the strongest fiscal years we've ever had,” Chief Investment Officer Ron Schmitz told the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission in July, adding that preliminary results in May and June “look a little better.”
Investment income generates about two-thirds of the money necessary to fund current and future benefits for more than 772,000 public employees, retirees and others who have contributed to the VRS, the 18th-largest public retirement system in the country. The return on VRS investments for the first 10 months of the fiscal year — through April 30 — was 22.3%.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch said the strong market performance could offset a potential $39 million increase in projected employer contribution rates — paid by state and local governments to cover the long-term retirement obligations to their employees — because of a new assumption that employees will live longer after retirement, requiring more money to pay long-term pension benefits.
Comments
There have been no comments made on this article. Why not be the first and add your own comment using the form below.
Leave a comment
Please complete the form below to submit a comment on this article. A valid email address is required to submit a comment though it will not be displayed on the site.
HTML has been disabled but if you wish to add any hyperlinks or text formatting you can use any of the following codes: [B]bold text[/B], [I]italic text[/I], [U]underlined text[/U], [S]
strike through text[/S], [URL]http://www.yourlink.com[/URL], [URL=http//www.yourlink.com]your text[/URL]