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PSERS Board Approves Asset Allocation and Funds

08/09/2019

For Immediate Release

August 9, 2019

For more Information Contact

Steve Esack
Press Secretary
Public School Employees’ Retirement System
Phone: 717-720-4770
e-mail:  stesack@pa.gov


PSERS Board Approves Asset Allocation and Funds

The Board of Trustees of the PA Public School Employees’ Retirement System voted Friday to approve the fund’s strategic asset allocation and also voted to invest in six new funds. 

The Board’s asset allocation approval establishes the parameters for how PSERS’ investment professionals will invest assets of the $57 billion fund. The allocation takes effect Oct. 1.  

“This is the most important process the Board goes through each year,” said PSERS Executive Director Glen Grell. “It sets the guardrails for how the investment team invests money.” 

The approved allocation continues the Board’s decade-long commitment to diversifying investments while making a few minor changes to some asset classes’ performance benchmarks and percentage weights. It will maintain about two dozen asset classes that are actively or passively managed by PSERS’ investment professionals or external investment managers. 

“I thank the Board for its ongoing faith in our diversification strategy,” said PSERS Chief Investment Officer James H. Grossman Jr. “Put simply, this is a balanced asset allocation strategy that follows the old adage of not putting all your eggs in one basket. The asset allocation provides enough liquidity to cover retirement benefits while also helping to buffer the assets from downturns in one or a few market segments, especially during the worldwide geopolitical, financial and trade uncertainty we are seeing.” 

In other matters, the Board voted to invest up to $1 billion in funds that highlight the system’s diversification. 

The dollar amounts and funds are: 

*$300 million, plus reasonable expenses, in Platinum Equity Capital Partners V. It is a private equity fund. 
*$300 million, plus reasonable expenses, in SSG Capital Partners V. It is an Asian private credit fund. 
*$100 million, plus reasonable expenses, in Bell Institutional Fund VII. It is a multi-family real estate fund. 
*$100 million, plus reasonable expenses, in Cabot Industrial Value Fund VI. It is an industrial real estate fund. 
*$100 million, plus reasonable expenses, in DRA Growth & Income Master Fund X. It is a diversified real estate fund. 
*$100 million, plus reasonable expenses, in AG Europe Realty Fund III. It is an European value-added real estate fund. 


All investment commitments are contingent on PSERS’ legal staff approving all final contracts. Copies of the resolutions will be posted at a later date on PSERS’ website: http://www.psers.pa.gov/About/Board/Resolutions/Pages/default.aspx.


About the Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System
PSERS was founded in 1917 to oversee a statewide defined benefit pension plan for public school employees. PSERS’ role expanded in 2019 to include oversight of a new defined contribution plan. PSERS membership covers about 256,000 active and 233,000 retired school employees.

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