Message from Chief Investment Officer Rod June

The beginning of this decade started off with a wild investment experience with two recent but different investment market periods that will end with different performance outcomes. As COVID began to spread globally in early 2020, investors reacted quickly with a shift to less risky assets; thus, began a very steep decline in public market valuations for several months with no end in sight. Several months later, investors began to see a gradual reversal of markets because of heavily discounted-priced securities and increased availability of vaccines that helped slow the spread and impact of the COVID virus. Thus, LACERS’ one year total fund performance ending June 30, 2021, netted 29.09%. During that volatile one year period, LACERS continued to take a strategic approach using its time-honored asset allocation policy as its guide.

With COVID in gradual decline, investors must now reckon with higher inflation and interest rates, coupled with persistent supply chain issues, and a serious global conflict, all of which can prove to be unkind to investment portfolios. Despite these multiple headwinds, LACERS will continue to rely on its asset allocation policy to navigate economic and market uncertainty in order to maximize performance and minimize risk, and ultimately ensure consistent delivery of earned retirement benefits well into the future.