www.wcers.org Winter 2018 Directors Report The Grand Park Centre Building 28 West Adams I hope you enjoyed your holiday with family and friends. As we Suite 1900 move into 2018, I want to take time to acknowledge all of the investment Detroit, MI 48226 growth in the portfolio that we have seen this past year. Our staff has experi- enced some changes due to retirements and resignations; however, we continue Phone: 313-224-5890 Fax: 313-224-1917 to answer phone inquiries and diligently provide services to our retirees. E-mail: In 2017, we experienced a great year for investments— the DOW Jones
[email protected] Industrial Average returned 25 %. This translates into great returns for those invested in the stock market. WCERS is pleased to report the Defined Benefit We’re on the Web! Plan earned over 12% for fiscal year ending September 30, 2017. Our diversi- WCERS.org fied investment portfolio is comprised of stocks, bonds, real estate and other assets and exceeded our benchmarks for the year. Each year we aim to earn more than the assumed rate of return required by our Actuarial Funding Policy, which is currently 7.25%. When the fund performs better than the assumed rate of return, the fund’s assets will grow, which may increase the funding lev- el of the defined benefit plan. Assets in the defined benefit plan as of October @WCERS 1, 2016, were $ 883,861,879.00, and as of September 30, 2017, the assets grew to $923,073,290.00. Accomplishing this goal is no easy feat as we also have to pay retiree payroll, which is in excess of $130 million annually.