Richard Moore says the state's pension fund is solid.
In an interview with the N&O, the outgoing state treasurer said the state's portfolio dropped from $72.3 billion in value at the end of June to $65.9 billion as of Sept. 30.
The portfolio secures pension funds for nearly 900,000 people in the state and local government retirement system, Rob Christensen reports.
"State pensioners should not be concerned about their checks," Moore said. "We will finish this year in an overfunded status. We will be one of the top-performing pension plans in the country this year. But we have lost money. We have lost a lot."
Because the state has long had a conservative investment policy — about half the assets are in fixed-income investments such as bonds — the state's losses were far less dramatic than in many investment funds.
The state pension fund was down 12 percent for the year ending Sept. 30, compared with the S&P 500, which was down 24 percent, Moore said.
North Carolina is one of three states — the others are New York and Connecticut — where an elected state official has sole responsibility for investment of the state's pension fund.
Comments
Re: Moore: Pension fund down, but solid? Oh?
January 1, 2009 - 11:25am — htkirbysIf anyone can find out what the year-end value of the pension fund is, that would be an interesting piece of news. Things have changed a lot since September. Even by the end of September, however, the fund had lost its status as completely funded for future claims, a status that it achieved over many years of careful management by Moore's predecessor, Harlan Boyles.