CLEARFIELD – The Clearfield County Retirement Board recently received its annual Investment Performance Report, which showed continued, solid growth for 2014, according to Commissioner Mark B. McCracken.
The fund earned a 7.5 percent return for 2014, showing investment earnings of $2,075,403 and ending the year with $30.7 million in assets. This is up from $29.2 million at the end of 2013, said McCracken.
He said the county’s Retirement Fund is ranked in the Top 10 percentile of public pension funds for 2014 and No. 14 of 215 similar public pension funds since current investment policies were enacted in July of 2010. He said from July of 2010 through Feb. 23, the county’s Retirement Fund has grown from $18.7 million to $31.4 million.
The county’s Retirement Board issued the following statement on its annual Investment Performance Report. “While we are seeing consistent growth for the Employment Retirement Fund overall, we are also faced with increasing monthly liabilities due to recent retirements of several long-serving elected officials and employees with many years of service.
“A recent monthly retirement payroll register shows 109 retirees drawing a total of $102,424 each month, [which is] up from $86,873 in December of 2013. As we move forward, investment decisions will be made to ensure the employee pension funds are protected and achieving adequate growth that will meet current and future benefit payments.”
According to McCracken, the county’s total fund allocation currently has 44.3 percent in Domestic Equity; 10.3 percent in Global Equity; 10.2 percent in International Equity; and 34.8 percent in Domestic Fixed Income. He said it has 0.4 percent cash with all categories falling within the investment policy limits implemented by the Retirement Board.
The Clearfield County Retirement Board consists of McCracken, Commissioner John A. Sobel, Joan Robinson-McMillen, Controller Tony Scotto and Treasurer Carol Fox.
