Investment Update as of April 30

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, MCERA members throughout Marin are helping to provide safety, security, and essential services to our communities. We want you to know your MCERA benefits also remain safe and secure, despite recent turmoil in financial markets.

As a member of a defined benefit pension plan like MCERA, your benefits do not change based on financial market performance. As a long-term investor, the portfolio designed by the Board of Retirement anticipates a certain level of market volatility. The Board of Retirement has carefully designed MCERA’s portfolio for long-term growth in order to pay benefits into the future, provide risk mitigating characteristics which are particularly important in times of market volatility, and provide continuous liquidity to ensure the ability to pay current benefits.

The table below shows the asset balances and fiscal year to date returns for each asset class. MCERA’s total assets as of June 30, 2019 were $2.58 billion. The preliminary fiscal year investment return for the fund as of April 30, 2020 is -3.7%, bringing the total portfolio to $2.48 billion as of the end of April. With nearly two months left in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2020, it is very difficult to project what the final year end return will be. That return is ultimately what will shape the contribution rates that will impact employers beginning July 1, 2021.

In June the Board’s Investment Committee will discuss our asset allocation and any potential changes to take advantage of market opportunities. While market events and new information may adjust our future activity, our long-term, strategic course remains intact: we will preserve an adequate cash position to pay near-term benefits and further strive to identify investment opportunities that can position the portfolio to grow in the future to support long-term liabilities.