The Kentucky Public Pensions Authority (KPPA) has released its Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports (ACFRs) for the County Employees Retirement System (CERS) and the Kentucky Retirement Systems (KRS) for the Fiscal Year (FY) ended June 30, 2024.
According to the report, pension plan funded ratios continued to improve, while average investment returns topped 10 percent for both CERS and KRS. This means all plans remain on track to be fully funded by 2049.
Among the highlights:
- CERS assets increased to a record $19.1 billion during the 12 months ending June 30, 2024. The increase was mostly due to investment returns, which averaged a combined 11.7 percent across all pension and insurance plans.
- The funded ratios for the CERS Nonhazardous and Hazardous pension plans increased.
- KRS’ fiduciary net position increased by 16.5 percent during the fiscal year to $8.9 billion, due to investment returns, actuarially accrued liability contributions, and additional funding of $240 million allocated by the Kentucky General Assembly.
- All KRS pension and insurance plans returned a combined average of 10.6% net of fees.
- The funded ratio for the Kentucky Employees Retirement System (KERS) Nonhazardous pension plan increased to 24.8 percent from 21.8 percent.
Beginning with the 2024 ACFRs, KPPA produced separate annual reports for CERS and KRS, based on decisions taken by the Boards of Trustees for CERS and KRS. Those reports can be found on KPPA’s website under the Publications & Forms tab by clicking on the Annual Reports page.
KPPA will continue to produce one SAFR, which provides an overview of information in the CERS and KRS ACFRs, as well as insights into the combined systems. In the coming weeks, that report can also be found in the Publications & Forms section of the website, on the Summary Annual Reports page.
The Kentucky Public Pensions Authority is responsible for the investment of funds and administration of pension and health insurance benefits for over 433,000 active and retired state and local government employees, state police officers, and non-teaching staff of local school boards and regional universities.
By Tom Latek, Kentucky Today
