Wisconsin Retirement System’s core fund outperforms benchmarks

A core fund managed by the $123 billion Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) ended 2022 with a preliminary one-year net return of –12.92 percent and a preliminary five-year net return of 6.16 percent, according to a report from the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB).

The core fund, the larger of two WRS trust funds with more than $114 billion in assets, had 10-year and 20-year returns (net of external manager fees) that continued to exceed the core fund’s target return of 6.8 percent. SWIB outperformed its benchmarks for all of these periods.

“The past year presented a unique set of challenges for investors navigating volatile financial markets,” said Edwin Denson, executive director and CIO of SWIB. “Investors faced concerns from persistent supply-chain issues to the great resignation, to the Federal Reserve raising interest rates several times in an effort to counter the highest inflation rates in four decades. All of this was coupled with an environme