By David G. Barry
The California State
Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) will
have a negative return for the fiscal 2021-2022 year.
Speaking before the system’s investment committee, Chief Investment Officer Christopher
Ailman said he expects the pension plan – the second-largest in the United
States – to be over $300 billion. CalSTRS ended fiscal 2021 at $308 billion.
During the fiscal year, it reached $327 billion, but more recently fell below
$300 billion.
Ailman said he expects the system to have final fiscal numbers in the next
week, but that it will likely show a loss of “negative 1% to negative 2%.”
He said he expects most of CalSTRS’ peers to be “slightly negative,” but that a
“handful” could end up with positive returns as a result of the lag in their
private equity portfolios. The June 30 figures that CalSTRS and other public
pension funds report will feature private equity numbers through the end of
March.
Ailman said that what’s particularly important are the three-year returns,
likening one year to one’s mile pace in a marathon. The one year, he said, is
negative, but the three-year return was over 9%.
