Investment Strategy
SWIB's investment strategy is disciplined, balanced, and focused on long-term results. SWIB invests first to help protect the pension plan from the impact of another major market downturn and then to earn reasonable returns.
Meeting Investment Objectives
SWIB has developed a disciplined, prudent, and innovative investment strategy designed to weather a variety of economic environments and protect the members of the WRS from another major reduction, keep contributions stable, and generate reasonable returns. SWIB's investment strategy takes into account that there will be investment gains in some years and losses in others and relies on professional investment management, diversification of investments, and a long-term investment strategy to achieve its goal. Meeting this investment objective has helped the WRS to be a well-funded system, as reported in a 50-year financial projection by the system's actuary.
One reason Wisconsin's pension system is so well-funded is the investment earnings SWIB has generated. Investment income accounts for approximately 78% of the WRS revenues over the past 10 years.
Diversified Asset Allocation
Each pension system works to meet its own unique set of objectives through a diversified asset allocation. Unlike some peers, who may be reaching for returns out of necessity and be over concentrated on stocks, SWIB has built a robust asset allocation.
This ensures that returns are still strong when the markets are hot but that the impact of a future downturn is lessened for WRS members.
Asset allocation is one of the most critical parts of SWIB’s investment strategy. Click here to learn more about asset allocation.
Long-Term Performance
Through a disciplined, prudent and innovative approach to market opportunities, SWIB has provided consistent, long-term performance that has financially benefited the WRS.
Adding to the strong long-term performance is SWIB's ability to optimize its costs. Click here to learn more about how SWIB manages costs. Click here to learn more about internal management.
SWIB is able to manage its costs effectively and provide respectable returns by combining active and passive management of the trust funds. Click here to learn more about active and passive management.