12/29/2015
For 94 years it has been our pleasure to provide NYSTRS members with a secure pension in retirement. More than 158,000 retired members and beneficiaries receive a NYSTRS benefit today and nearly 268,000 active members can look forward to the same security in the future.
In achieving our mission we seek to provide New York’s public school educators with exceptional customer service and to be a model for excellence. As 2015 draws to a close, some of the ways NYSTRS served its members this past year were by:
- Welcoming more than 9,000 new members, while transitioning more than 6,000 members into retirement.
- Launching a redesigned website at NYSTRS.org featuring more intuitive navigation and responsive design capabilities for improved viewing on mobile devices.
- Upgrading the NYSTRS mobile app, the first of its kind for public pension members.
- Administering the plan at an average cost of 24 cents per $100 managed, as compared to 60 cents or more to manage the same $100 in a typical defined contribution plan.
- Posting a 20-year rate of return on investments of 8.4%, which exceeded our assumed rate of return for that period of 8.0%.
- Managing a record-high $109.7 billion in net assets as of 6/30/2015.
- Proudly reporting that between 1995 and 2015, 85% of NYSTRS income came from investment returns. The national average for public pension systems is 75%.*
See NYSTRS by the Numbers to learn more and visit our Pension Education Toolkit for additional information about public pensions.
* Source: 2015 NCPERS Public Retirement Systems Study