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FY2024 Summary Annual Financial Report (PDF, 718.6 KB)

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Chief Executive Officer

Governor Kim Reynolds appointed Gregory Samorajski as the CEO of IPERS effective May 1, 2020. A native of Cleveland, Samorajski moved to Chicago and earned his undergraduate degree at Northwestern University and his graduate degree at the University of Chicago. He spent the early part of his career in Chicago where, among other jobs, he worked at the First National Bank of Chicago and at the Chicago Board of Trade as a Senior Economist, Manager Financial Instruments. In 1997 he moved to Alaska where he spent more than a decade in multiple roles at McKinley Capital Management, LLC and then served as the Chief Financial Officer at True North Federal Credit Union. The Governor of Alaska appointed Samorajski as the Deputy Commissioner of the state’s Department of Revenue in 2018. In this role, he managed the State Treasury, Bond Issuance, Permanent Fund Dividend and Pension Plan Investments Divisions that employed more than 100 investment, accounting, administrative and compliance professionals. At IPERS, Samorajski oversees an agency of 90 employees and a trust fund totaling more than $40 billion.

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Greg Samorajski, CEO, High Resolution Photo

IPERS News

December 6, 2024 (Des Moines, IA) – At today’s quarterly meeting of its Investment Board, the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (IPERS) announced that its funded ratio reached 90.75% at the conclusion of FY2024, an increase from FY2023 when the ratio was 89.70%. This is the highest funded ratio IPERS has achieved since FY2002 when the ratio was 92.6%.

September 26, 2024 (Des Moines, IA) – At today’s meeting of its Investment Board, the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (IPERS) announced that its investment program earned a 9.07% return in FY2024, exceeding its policy benchmark of 8.80%. IPERS’ long-term investment assumption is 7.00%. At the conclusion of FY2024, the value of the IPERS Trust Fund equaled $43.61 billion, a $2.48 billion increase from the same time in FY2023.

December 8, 2023 (Des Moines, IA) - At yesterday’s quarterly meeting of its Investment Board, the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (IPERS) announced that its FY2023 funded ratio equaled 89.70%, a slight increase from FY2022 when the ratio was 89.50%. IPERS’ investment program earned a 5.41% return in FY2023, below its 7.00% assumption. But higher-than-expected earnings in FY2021 pushed the FY2023 actuarial value of assets to 7.17% and created an actuarial gain of $65 million. The actuarial value of the IPERS Trust Fund equaled $41.013 billion in FY2023, up from $39.354 billion in FY2022. IPERS’ FY2023 actuarial valuation report is available on www.ipers.org.

September 28, 2023 (Des Moines, IA) - At today’s quarterly meeting of its investment board, the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System announced that its investment program earned a 5.41% return in FY2023, slightly exceeding its policy benchmark of 5.27%. At the conclusion of FY2023, the value of the IPERS Trust Fund equaled $41.13 billion, a $1 billion increase from the same time in FY2022.

December 1, 2022 (Des Moines, IA) - According to an annual report from its actuary, the funded ratio of the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (IPERS) grew more than 1% between FY2021 and FY2022. Strong investment returns in FY2021 buoyed the funded ratio, which grew to 89.5% in FY2022, compared to 88.3% in FY2021. The same report showed IPERS’ unfunded actuarial liability decreased from $4.9 billion in FY2021 to $4.6 billion in FY2022. As of June 30, 2022, the market value of the IPERS Trust Fund equaled $40.2 billion.

September 22, 2022 (Des Moines, IA) - Today the Investment Board of the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (IPERS) voted to amend the system’s allocation plan, increasing the allocations for private equity from 13.0% to 17.0% and private real assets from 8.5% to 9.5%. Some other asset classes were slightly reduced.

September 7, 2022 (Des Moines, IA) - Today the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (IPERS) announced that its investment portfolio returned -3.90% for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022, beating its policy benchmark by 0.15%. (IPERS does not consider the results of its substantial private investments in the calculation of its returns versus its policy benchmark.)

June 24, 2022 (Des Moines, IA) – This week the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (IPERS) released two requests for proposals for resources to support several investment programs of the $43.7 billion trust fund.

March 28, 2022 (Des Moines, IA) – At its quarterly meeting held last Friday in Des Moines, the Investment Board of the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (IPERS) approved hiring firms to manage various strategies within IPERS’ $45.2 billion portfolio. All hirings are subject to final due diligence and successful contract negotiations.

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January 4, 2022 (Des Moines, IA) – Today the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (IPERS) announced the hiring of Sriram Lakshminarayanan as its Chief Investment Officer (CIO), effective Jan. 7, 2022. Lakshminarayanan takes the helm after serving as IPERS’ Chief Risk Officer since 2014. Previously, he worked as a Director, Portfolio Management, at MCUBE Investment Technologies in Princeton, New Jersey, and Plano, Texas.

December 2, 2021 (Des Moines, IA) – Today the Investment Board of the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (IPERS) received a summary of the system’s FY2021 actuarial valuation report that showed IPERS’ funded ratio grew to 88.3% in FY2021, up from 84.0% in FY2020. IPERS’ unfunded actuarial liability plummeted from $6.6 billion in FY2020 to $4.9 billion in FY2021. As of June 30, 2021, the market value of the IPERS Trust Fund equaled a record $42.85 billion.

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September 30, 2021 (Des Moines, IA) - Karl C. Koch, CFA, long-time Chief Investment Officer of the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (IPERS), has announced his retirement, effective December 30, 2021. Koch joined IPERS in 1998 as a Retirement Investment Officer after a 13-year stint working in the office of the State Treasurer of Iowa. In 2007 he was promoted to CIO. During his tenure, the value of the IPERS Trust Fund has nearly doubled, growing from $23 billion in FY2007 to $43 billion at the close of FY2021.

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August 30, 2021 (Des Moines, IA) – The Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (IPERS) announced today that it earned a 29.6% net return in FY2021, 0.8% more than its policy benchmark, and the second highest fiscal year annual return in the system’s 63-year history. IPERS’ performance means it added nearly $9 billion to a trust fund now valued at close to $43 billion.

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August 9, 2021 (Des Moines, IA) – The IPERS Investment Board held a special meeting last week and approved hiring two new asset managers and selected Wilshire to continue as the plan’s investment consultant.

In April IPERS issued an RFP to select a firm to provide investment consulting services for all asset classes. IPERS received seven proposals and selected four finalists. A committee of staff and Board members interviewed the finalists and recommended retaining Wilshire for the role. Wilshire has served as IPERS’ investment consultant since 1984. IPERS and Wilshire will now begin negotiations on a six-year contract that is expected to begin on October 1, 2021.

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June 30, 2021 (Des Moines, IA) – The Government Finance Officers Association has recognized the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System’s (IPERS) FY2020 annual financial report with the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting. The award is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and reporting. This is the 28th consecutive year IPERS has received the honor.

June 17, 2021 (Des Moines, IA) – Today the Investment Board of the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (IPERS) approved hiring two new private credit managers. The hirings are in response to the Board’s decision in late 2020 to increase IPERS’ private credit target allocation from 3% to 8%.

IPERS’s current private credit portfolio is largely composed of direct lending strategies. In October 2020 IPERS issued an RFP for managers with expertise in opportunistic credit strategies. Proposals from the 80 respondents that met minimum requirements were broken up into specific areas: multi-strategy, mezzanine, specialty finance, real assets, special situations and other. (Multi-strategy and mezzanine managers were approved at the Board’s meeting in March 2021.)

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April 20, 2021 (Des Moines, IA) – In accordance with Iowa Code Chapter 118, the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (IPERS) has issued a request for proposals (RFP) from qualified investment firms to provide investment consulting services for all asset classes.

An evaluation committee consisting of IPERS Investment Board members and staff will evaluate proposals and make a formal recommendation to the 11-member Board. The Board will determine which firm, if any, is successful.

March 29, 2021 (Des Moines, IA) – The market value of the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (IPERS) Trust Fund rose to $39.01 billion at the end of December 2020 – up from $34 billion on June 30, 2020 – according to information reported at the March 26, 2021, quarterly meeting of the IPERS Investment Board.

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December 4, 2020 (Des Moines, IA) – At its quarterly meeting yesterday, the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (IPERS) Investment Board approved the system’s first internally managed investment program intended to systematically invest in Alternative Risk Premia (ARP). ARP refers to potential rewards from harvesting factor returns, such as valuation, momentum, carry and many others, from multiple global asset classes. IPERS’ goal is to create a diversified return stream from the ARP portfolio that would help achieve the system’s return objectives within its risk budget. The program will start with a relatively modest amount of exposure ($300 million) but could be expanded in the future as the program proves itself.

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October 7, 2020 (Des Moines, Iowa) - Today the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (IPERS) issued an RFP to evaluate and select up to $850 million in opportunistic private credit products. These products are defined as opportunistic private credit strategies that are actively managed in a separately managed account and/or fund structure that makes investments in any of the following private credit categories: mezzanine lending, special situations, specialty finance, real assets credit and multi-strategy.

September 17, 2020 (Des Moines, IA) - At its quarterly meeting today, the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System’s (IPERS) Investment Board approved a plan to strategically invest assets of the pension plan’s $35 billion trust fund. The changes were part of the board’s annual asset allocation review. The new plan has expected returns of approximately 7.0% over 30 years which is consistent with IPERS’ liability discount rate assumption of 7.0%.

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