Page 9 - EAST BlueNote March April 2018

Treasurer Folwell Reports 13.5 Percent Return for Pension Plan in 2017

By Jeff Gray – Legislative Agent

State Treasurer Dale Folwell announced on February 9th that the State pension plan reported gains of 13.5 percent
for calendar year 2017, outperforming its benchmark of 12.8 percent. Pension fund assets were valued at $98.3
billion, up from $89.1 billion at the end of 2016. The pension plan, known as the North Carolina Retirement
Systems, is managed by the N.C. Department of State Treasurer. Treasurer Folwell made the announcement during
his monthly “Ask Me Anything” media availability.

“We are very pleased to see these gains at a time when the pension fund as a whole had less exposure to risk,”
said Treasurer Folwell. “Our investment management team . . . has done an outstanding job of protecting and
sustaining the pension plan on behalf of the public workers who rely on it during their retirement.”

The 2017 performance figures were reported net of all fees and expenses.
 Public equity, which makes up almost 40 percent of the total fund, gained 24.4 percent.
 Private equity rose 12.0 percent.
 Non-Core Real Estate and Opportunistic Fixed Income returned 12.4 percent and 7.1 per-
cent respectively.
 The multi-strategy portfolio rose 13.6 percent for the twelve-month period.
Inflation-sensitive and diversifier investments increased by 8.6 percent.
Investment-Grade Fixed Income earned 4.4 percent.
 Treasurer Folwell and the investment management team cut costs significantly in 2017 to
provide more value to members of the pension plan. During the first year of Folwell’s
administration, fees paid to Wall Street investment managers were reduced by more than
$60 million for a projected savings of $240 million over four years. That figure exceeds
Folwell’s pledge to cut fees by $100 million over four years.

The Department also moved $100 million in passive indexing funds under in-house management in 2017 as a
means of further reducing fees while maintaining performance as measured by the Russell Top 200 index strategy
and the Russell Mid Cap index strategy.

The North Carolina Retirement Systems is the tenth largest public pension fund in the country. It provides
retirement benefits and savings to more than 900,000 members, including teachers, state employees, firefighters,
police officers and other public workers.

Treasurer Folwell has been a supporter of the FOP since his days as a State legislator, was endorsed by the FOP
in his successful bid for State Treasurer, and has frequently appeared before the State Trustees, local Lodges, and
other law enforcement groups to explain the State’s investments and retirement system and answer questions.

FOP Leadership Matters Training

By Tony Staley – Chairman of the State Trustees

I just recently got back from attending the FOP Leadership Matters training in Nashville, Tennessee. Also in
attendance were State President Randy Hagler, State Treasurer Chet Effler, and Second Vice President James
Shores. I was very impressed with the training blocks which were divided into executive training for executive
officers, administrative training for lodge secretaries, and financial training for lodge treasurers. I was enrolled in
the executive training block and learned about police wellness and how our culture gets in the way. Examples of
this are shift work and home environment stressors, organizational police culture not being supportive of work life
issues, and more emphasis being placed on police management. This block was presented by instructor Linda
Duxbury from Carleton University.

The next block of training involved social media for FOP lodges and learning how to use social media more
effectively to communicate with lodge members and our communities. This was presented by Mark Weaver with
Communications Counsel, Inc. National FOP President Chuck Canterbury provided training on “You Have Been

Continued on Page 11

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