1993		2018
A. Accrued liability		$75.9B		$505.0B
B. Actual value of assets		$75.9B		$354.6B
C. Value of assets based on ?.??% return		$75.9B		$261.6B
D. Actual funded status (B ÷ A)		100%		70.2%
E. Funded status based on ?.??% return (C ÷ A)		100%		69.8%

Detailed spreadsheet (opens in new window).

Choose fixed return (%):

This tool displays the actual funded status of the CalPERS PERF fund during the 25-year period of 1993 to 2018. It compares the actual funded status to what it would have been had investments yielded a fixed return in each of those 25 years.

In 1993 the funded status was 100%, but by 2018 it had dropped to 70.2%, a shortfall of $150.4B. The shortfall is often blamed on investment return being less than hoped for. This tool allows you to explore if this is actually true or not.

Select a value for the fixed return using the form above. Hover your mouse cursor over the plots to see numerical values. Here are some example returns you might want to try:

• 7.82% produces a final result equal to the actual funded status (70.2% in 2018). This shows that the actual investment results were equivalent to a fixed return of 7.82%.
• 9.13% produces a final result of full funding (100.1% in 2018). This shows that investments would have had to earn a fixed return of 9.13% to overcome the shortfall that occurred over the 25 years.
• 7.0% produces a final result worse than the actual funded status (55.7% versus 70.2% in 2018). Thus investments did better over the 25 years than the current assumption of 7.0%.