Arizona State Retirement System

The Arizona State Retirement System is the state agency within Arizon that administers a variety of services including pension plan, long term disability plan, retiree health insurance plans and other benefits to qualifying public government workers. The state would begin providing pensions in the same year that Arizona became a state. The Teachers' Retirement System would become established in 1943, providing benefits to all certified, full-time teachers. Arizona State Retirement System would become established in 1953 to provide retirement benefits to state employees and employees of the state's political subdivisions who sign a membership contract. The Arizona State Retirement System Fixed Benefit Plan would be established in 1970 after 80% of positive votes for the new plan from eligible members, and the Arizona State Retirement System currently provides to a variety of members in the State of Arizona including three state universities, community college districts, school districts and charter schools, all 15 counties, most cities and towns, and a variety of special districts. The system has a variety of investment goals including maximizing fund returns, achieving a 75th percentile rate of return compared to peers, maintaining long-term fund rates of return equal to or greater than the actuarial assumed interest rate, reaching long-term economic and actuarial funded statuses of 100 percent, and mitigating contribution rate volatility. The Arizona State Retirement System allocates its assets mainly in equity and stocks, which alone makes up over half of its total allocations, and also allocations in fixed incomes, making up another quarter of its total, and inflation linked assets and multi-asset class strategies. The system currently has over half a million members with over 200 thousand active members and 690 employer participants. The system has a total fund market value of over $45 billion and is over three quarters funded. It has generated a 10% return rate since its inception and most recently had an 18.6% net return.