Calpers Earns 0.6% as Long-Term Returns Trail Fund's Target (FED LOVE FAILS TO SPREAD AROUND WELL?!)

The pension's public equity portfolio lost 3.4 percent in the year through June 30 and forestland assets declined 9.6 percent, Chief Investment Officer Ted Eliopoulos said Monday. Fixed-income holdings rose 9.3 percent and infrastructure investments gained 9 percent.

"The longer-term returns of the fund -- the three-, five-, 10-, 15- and 20-year total returns of the fund -- are now below the assumed rate of 7.5 percent for the fund," Eliopoulos said. "That's a significant policy issue for us."

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In fiscal 2015, Calpers earned 2.4 percent. The pension lost a quarter of its value in 2009. Two years later, it earned a record 20.7 percent, only to see the gain drop to 1 percent the following year. Since the recession, the fund has sought to better gauge its risks from market volatility.

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Assets totaled $301.9 billion as of June 30, 2015, and have been reduced as benefit payments outpaced the combination of employee contributions and investing returns. Calpers serves more than 1.7 million members in its retirement system and administers benefits for nearly 1.4 million members and their families in its health program.

The fund was large enough to cover about 76 percent of its liabilities as of June 2014, according to its website, based on assumptions such as employee life expectancy and historical returns on investment.