.jpg)
By Len Lazarick | Maryland Reporter
ANNAPOLIS — Maryland’s $37 billion state retirement and pension system for employees and teachers earned only an abysmal 0.36 percent on its investments in the fiscal year that ended June 30.
The state’s targeted rate of return was 7.75 percent.
“The last 12 months presented a challenging environment for investors, particularly in international equity,” said the retirement system’s chief investment officer A. Melissa Moye. “Most of the system’s assets added value to the fund, offsetting the negative impact of public equity for the year.”
Most of the asset categories in the fund, from cash to real estate, had positive earnings of 3 percent to 8 percent. But publicly traded stocks, which represent 42 percent of the portfolio, were down almost 7 percent.
The results “look like a minor disaster for fiscal 2011,” said Jeff Hooke, an investment banker who is chairman of the Maryland Tax Education Foundation and a persistent critic of the pension system.
Read the complete story at Maryland Reporter.
