Pension Fund Return Tracker
The Pension Fund Return Tracker by PitchBook highlights how major US public pension plans like Calpers and Calstrs are increasingly investing hundreds of billions into private equity and direct private market assets—reaching decade-high direct investments—to enhance growth and control while tracking their assets under management and preliminary annual returns for performance comparison among peers.
Private market investments are fueling the American retirement system.
Over the past few decades, the largest public pension plans in the US have poured hundreds of billions of dollars into private equity funds and acquired direct stakes in private companies.
In FY 2024, Calpers, the largest public pension plan in the country, further increased its allocations to private assets to capitalize on what it saw as ongoing growth in private equity, investing over $90 billion into the private markets.
Now, many pensions are entering a new era of private market investing, with direct and co-investments at a decade-high. Leading this change is the country’s second largest fund, Calstrs, which is building out its in-house, direct-investing capabilities to reduce the fees it pays for fund management and to gain more control over underlying assets.
As some of the country’s largest limited partners transform their investment styles, it’s important to document performance fluctuations.
PitchBook’s Pension Fund Return Tracker compares the size and performance of the largest public retirement funds in the US by tracking assets under management (AUM) and annual returns. Allocators can use the data included in this dashboard to compare the performance of their investments to their peers.
The top public pension funds in the US:
- Total assets under management by pension
- The top pensions in the country returned an average return over the past decade
*The returns are preliminary returns.
**The returns are from a quarterly report from the close of the most recent fiscal year.