Indiana Pension Fund Assets Hit Record High

Recent data revealed that assets of the Indiana Public Retirement System (INPRS) hit at all-time high of $30.2 billion in 2014.

Fund officials attribute the record to “great” investment returns. The fund returned 13.7 percent in fiscal year 2013-14, which ended June 30. That number falls well short of what the S&P 500 returned over the same period, but the INPRS improved its funding ratio because of a confluence of factors, including employers making full contributions into the system.

More from the Associated Press:

Indiana public employers paid 99.4 percent of their actuarial determined contributions last year.

[…]

Indiana’s pension program is known as a hybrid plan because it features both a modest employer-paid pension and an employee-owned but state-managed annuity savings account to which employees must contribute at least 3 percent of their annual salaries.

INPRS assets have grown by $13 billion since the 2009 low point for the stock market.

[INPRS executive director Steve] Russo said Indiana remains on track to cover its obligations in the pay-as-you-go teachers retirement fund that was closed to new members in 1995.

State appropriations to fund that plan are set to grow 3 percent a year from $776.3 million in 2014 to an estimated $841 million in 2017 before peaking at $1.1 billion in 2029.

Required state funding then gradually will shift to the $2.6 billion pension stabilization fund, made up in part of Hoosier Lottery profits, that will cover pension benefits until there are no more participating retired teachers.

The INPRS is 88.9 percent funded.

Photo by www.SeniorLiving.Org