Public pension system sees big returns in 2021

The State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio serves nearly 493,000 active, inactive and retired Ohio public educators. With investment assets of $94.8 billion as of June 30, 2021, STRS Ohio is one of the largest public pension funds in the country and the second largest in Ohio.

Ohio’s five public pension systems are seeing robust investment returns so far in 2021 with increases ranging from 8.8% to 11.5% in the first two quarters, according to a new report by RVK, Inc.

The systems also saw strong returns in 2019 and 2020, after losses in 2018. Collectively, the five systems now hold $251 billion in investment portfolios.

The Ohio Retirement Study Council, a bipartisan pension watchdog panel, is scheduled to dig into the RVK report at its meeting Thursday.

In the first two quarters, the funds saw increases of:

■ 11.5% for State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio.

■ 11.3% for Highway Patrol Retirement System.

■ 11.2% for Ohio Police & Fire.

■ 9.7% for School Employees Retirement System.

■ 9.6% for Public Employees Retirement - Health Care Fund.

■ 8.8% for PERS - Pension Fund.

Five of the six beat their benchmarks, which are used for apples to apples performance comparisons.

A new report by RVK Inc. shows all five of Ohio’s public pension funds saw positive investment returns in the two quarters of 2021. Collectively, the five systems have $251 billion invested for active and retired employees.

Thanks to a robust stock market in 2019, 2020 and so far in 2021, the funds have exceeded their assumed rates of returns.