The State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio announced its fiscal year 2024 returns at a board meeting last Thursday. The fund returned 10.53% in the 12-month period ending June 30, and STRS assets rose to $95.3 billion, an increase of $5.2 billion over the past fiscal year.
The return of 10.53% was slightly less than the fund’s benchmark of 10.73%. The fund achieved an annualized five-year return of 8.8%, better than its benchmark of 8.21%, according to the fund’s investment consultant, Meketa Investment Group.
“We talk a lot about performance in the short term and it’s important to keep the perspective long-term,” said Matthew Worley, Ohio STRS’ CIO and deputy executive director of investments, at the August 16 board meeting.
As of the end of June, the fund had an asset allocation of 26.1% to domestic equity, 22% to fixed income, 21.9% to global equities, 19.9% to alternatives, 8.4% to real estate and 1.6% to liquidity reserves.
The fund continues to be embroiled in a fight over investment strategy and investment staff compensation that resulted in one investment consultant ending its work with the pension system and an investigation from the Ohio attorney general.
The board of STRS is controlled by a faction that wants the fund to switch to passive investment strategies. One such member, Wade Steen, was removed from the board in 2023 by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, but was reinstated by the Supreme Court of Ohio earlier this year.
The trailing one-year performance, gross of fees, broken down by asset class for fiscal 2024 was 24.35% to domestic equities and 14.87% for international equities. Fixed income returned a trailing 3.63%. Real estate, the fund’s only asset class reporting a loss, returned negative 9.44%. Alternative investments returned 6.85%, and liquidity reserve assets returned a trailing 5.64%.
STRS Ohio manages the pension investments for more than 530,000 active, inactive and retired educators.
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Tags: Meketa, Ohio, State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, STRS, STRS Ohio