(The Center Square) — A recent report by the Florida Legislature’s research arm found that the Florida Retirement System’s pension and investment plans did not meet their one-year benchmarks.
The report by the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability also found that the Investment Plan didn’t meet its three-year benchmark, while the Pension Plan failed to meet its 25-year funding objective.
The State Board of Administration, which administers Florida’s defined-benefit pension and alternative 401K type plans for state and local retirees had its major investment funds gain $27.2 billion in market value since the last review by OPPAGA in 2023. Most of those gains came in the pension fund, $18.3 billion, due to strong returns on the plan’s investments.
The biggest losses came from the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, which was only fund to lose value at $1.6 billion due to $2.5 billion in withdrawals after the state was hit by six hurricanes — four of them major — since 2022.
The report also analyzed the effects of recent laws passed by the Legislature that affected the SBA’s operations, which included a ban on investments with Iranian or firms connected to Iran and another law against investing in Chinese-owned firms.
The SBA said in the report they were able to comply with a September 2025 deadline to divest state investment funds from Chinese firms, which accounted for 1.4% of the state’s portfolio.
Lawmakers have also passed a requirement that SBA invest in funds concerned totally with pecuniary factors rather than those exemplified by the environmental, social and governance method and avoid any investments in firms that boycott Israel.
The SBA manages 29 investment funds with a total market value of $257.5 billion, which includes the Florida Retirement System Pension Fund (defined benefit) and Investment Plan (a 401K-style fund), the Local Government Surplus Funds Trust Fund and the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, among others.
The SBA puts about half of those funds into global equities (stocks), with the latest figure at 48.5%.
The Pension Fund earned a rate of return of 10.5%, still 0.6% below its benchmark of 11%.
The Investment Fund earned 13.4%, 0.4% before its expected benchmark.
