The state Employees' Retirement System invested 43 percent of its assets into corporate stocks and bonds in fiscal 2001, while the national average for government retirement systems was 53 percent, according to data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. State retirement system
light on stocks, bondsLess is invested in corporate
vehicles than national averageBy Tim Ruel
truel@starbulletin.comFor the year ended June 2001, the ERS distributed $2.82 billion of its $9.29 billion total holdings to stocks and $1.16 billion to corporate bonds, according to the Census.
At the same time, the state invested $1.69 billion in government securities, 18 percent of its holdings, compared with a national average of 11 percent.
The state also put $2.65 billion into "other" types of private securities, nearly 29 percent of its assets. These items, according to the Census Bureau's guidelines, can include guaranteed investment accounts, direct loans and mutual fund shares. The national average for such investments was 18 percent.
However, some of the Census data appears to be at odds with the official annual report the ERS issued for fiscal 2001.
According to Census data, the ERS brought in $404.2 million in revenue, with $54.5 million coming from employee contributions and $8.1 million from government contributions.
The bulk, $341.6 million, came from investments, the Census said.
The ERS annual report for the same period shows that the system actually lost $680 million from investments, compared with a year-earlier gain of $695 million.
The ERS' 2001 return on investment was a negative 6.7 percent. An ERS official had no immediate comment yesterday afternoon.
The Census data reflected gains for 32 states and Washington, D.C. during the period, which marked a time of steep loses in the stock market.
The Hawaii system paid out $503.3 million in periodic benefits to 33,074 beneficiaries in fiscal 2001, according to the Census Bureau.
In this case, the data is about the same as the ERS report, although the Census appeared to lump inactive members in with beneficiaries. Across the entire United States, a total of $100 billion went to nearly 6 million beneficiaries.
Total U.S. membership was 16.8 million people, nearly 6 percent of the nation's 284.8 million people.
As of March 31 of this year, the ERS said it allocated 35 percent of its assets to large company stocks, 22 percent to domestic fixed-income, 15 percent to international equity, 10 percent to small- and medium-sized companies and 8 percent to real estate.
Nearly 11 percent alone was invested in the Mellon S&P Index growth fund. Since March 20, the fund's value has dropped 19 percent to 83.4 cents from $1.025.
The ERS placed 3.2 percent of assets, or $300.8 million, into cash and deposits. The national average was 5.4 percent.
Hawaii and Maine are the only states that have one retirement system serving all state and local government employees.
Hawaii has the 10th smallest system of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with 59,992 active members. California has the largest, with 1.6 million active members served by 62 separate systems.
State of Hawaii
