Florida's Pension Fund

The headline in today’s St. Petersburg Times is “Pension fund plummets”. The State Board of Administration (SBA) manages Florida’s public investments.  The investments peaked in September, 2007 at $187.5 billion and since then have lost 1/3 of their value. The largest component of the SBA is the Florida Retirement System Pension Plan.  The decline has come both from the withdrawal of funds and investment losses.  Their is some derivative exposure.  The pension plan has lost more than 1/4 of its value, or $37.9 billion over the 13 month period since September 2007.  Since more than 1/2 of  the pension funds assets are invested in stocks the fund is at risk with the stock market declines.
The article goes on to note that “Florida isn’t alone.  Across the country, the financial crisis is wreaking havoc on public pension funds”.