The Public Service Superannuation Plan is reporting a one-year investment return of 7.03 per cent, which pushed its net investment income to $562 million during the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025.
The investment performance beat the actuarial assumed rate of return of 6.50 per cent but didn’t clear its policy benchmark’s return of 9.21 per cent.
Read: Nova Scotia’s PSSP returns 5.56% for fiscal year
Even though returns fell short of the benchmark, the plan’s performance was “solid,” said Leo McKenna, chair of the Public Service Superannuation Plan Trustee Inc. board, in a press release.
“Benchmarks for key asset classes like real estate, infrastructure and private equity remained historically high, and most peer plans faced similar challenges.”
The plan has a surplus of $525 million with $8.275 billion net assets and actuarially calculated liabilities of $7.750 billion.
At the end of the fiscal year, the plan was 106.8 per cent funded on a going-concern basis, a three per cent increase from the previous year. As part of its annual report, the plan also conducted a funded health review, which found a 114.6 per cent funded status with a of $1.05 billion surplus as at Dec. 31, 2024.
Following the review, the plan is granting cost-of-living adjustments at 2.61 per cent year-over-year for the next five years starting on Jan. 1, 2026. It’s also allocating about $525 million of its current surplus for strategic reserves.
Read: N.S. legislation allowing private employers to transfer pensions into PSSP