The Missouri State Employee Retirement System has taken some hits along with other investors during the economic downturn, but says its portfolios are solid and Missouri state workers’ retirement funds are safe and doing well.
Rick Dahl — MOSERS Chief Investment Officer — says as long-term investors, MOSERS doesn’t focus on short-term setbacks. Dahl also says because the system has some three thousand holdings and is extremely diversified, it’s more insulated from market drops.
Dahl says in 2008, when the global market saw a 40 percent decline, MOSERS holdings only fell about 23 percent. And he says current market indicators are positive.
Dahl says the rebound is welcome … but not surprising since history shows temporary ebbs and flows. He says MOSERS financial analysts are cautiously optimistic its investment earnings will continue to rise.
The State Employee Retirement System — MOSERS — is doing better than most investors after a stock market drop and amid the current rebound.
Rick Dahl — MOSERS Chief Investment Officer — says it manages retirement funds for state workers for as long as 60 years … the span of a career … which makes these quick hits less painful.
Dahl says in 2008, when the global market saw a 40 percent decline, MOSERS holdings only fell about 23 percent. He says that’s because MOSERS has about three thousand holdings. That diversification protects the portfolio from any one sector of the market having a significant negative impact.
“What we do have is asset allocation that’s about 45 percent in stocks, 30 percent in fixed income type securities, another 25 percent in things that we call alternative investments: real estate, private equity, timberland, commodities investments,” he says. “The equity market has been very strong. That portfolio is up about 26 percent for the year; 15.9 percent for last quarter. The bond portfolio is up about 14 percent, about 6 percent for the quarter; the alternatives are up about 4.4. percent for quarter, for the calendar year, they’ve declined about 2.9 percent, driven in large part by continued weakness in the real estate market.”