Highlights PRIT’s Positive Developments
During the Conference, retirement board officials heard from Mike Trotsky, the Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer of the state PRIM (Pension Reserves Investment Management) Board. Briefly, PRIM manages and invests the PRIT (Pension Reserves Investment Trust) Fund that contains the pension assets of the state employees and teachers’ retirement systems as well as 94 local systems either fully or partially.
In his presentation, Trotsky highlighted several key developments regarding PRIT.
Ed Note: Director Trotsky’s remarks, at the time of the early June conference, were based upon stats and data available as of the First Quarter of this year (Jan-March 2023).
For more updated PRIT news, see p. 1) Among the highlights, there were the following:
- Over the last 10 years, PRIM has nearly doubled assets in PRIT (Pension Reserves Investment Trust) Fund that it manages.
- Over the last five years, PRIT assets have grown by more than $20B to roughly $95B, which takes into account that every year PRIM pays benefits out of the fund; on average approximately $1 to $1.5 billion a year.
- There was a positive return for the March 2023 quarter, the second consecutive quarter of PRIT Fund gains following the three quarter sell-off during calendar year 2022. The PRIT Fund was up 3.6% in the quarter ending in March, and that followed a positive 4.1% return in the December 2022 quarter.
- In calendar 2022, stocks were down 15-20% globally while bonds were down approximately 13%, but the PRIT Fund fared better than both stock and bond indices in 2022, it was down 11.2% net of fees.
- PRIM can control the design and composition of the PRIT Fund and has carefully engineered a diversified portfolio with components that will perform well in a variety of market environments – ranging from weak to strong. For example, PRIM’s alternative investments helped anchor the PRIT Fund in last year’s very stormy environment and now the markets have provided two consecutive quarters of gains December 2022 and March 2023).
- Recognizing that market downturns create good buying opportunities, the PRIM team has been very busy evaluating opportunities and deploying nearly $6 billion in new investments across all asset classes.
In highlighting PRIM’s strong performance, Trotsky emphasized its core belief that no investment decision is complete without evaluating the three equally important parameters of return, risk and cost. As he sees it, the PRIT Fund is well-diversified and carefully engineered, with components that will perform well in any future environment.