Rhode Island's pension system outperforms most peers for second year in a row

August 16, 2019: Rhode Island's pension system continues to improve its relative investment performance when compared to similarly sized public pension funds, outperforming 78% of its peers in the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2019.

Leading market intelligence firm, InvMetrics, found that Rhode Island performed in the top quartile among public pension funds over $1 billion, according to a report from New England Pension Consulting, which serves as a consultant to pension plans throughout the country, including Rhode Island.

Rhode Island's performance continues to steadily improve compared to its peers, marking the second consecutive fiscal year in which the plan outperformed the median in its peer group. This recent success stands in contrast to historical performance, in which Rhode Island often lagged its peers. The system's relative performance ranked in the sixty-sixth percentile among peers for a ten-year period, while improving to fifty-seventh in a five-year period, and twenty-second over a one-year period.

Under Treasurer Magaziner's leadership, the state adopted the 'Back to Basics' investment strategy, which is designed to provide long-term growth over time and stability when markets are challenging. Since implementation of Back to Basics began in September 2016, the fund has earned $1.8 billion from investments as of July 31, 2019.

Detailed information about the fund, including the 'Back to Basics' investment strategy, performance, and detailed information about its managers are published online as part of Treasurer Magaziner's "Transparent Treasury" initiative.