“Smart consumers know the cost of a purchase, be it an automobile or a private equity investment,” said South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis, whose state started tracking fees in 2013. “It was a lonely road for a long time.”
Private equity returned 8.9 percent to CalPERS in the fiscal year ending June 30, compared to 1 percent from public equities and 2.4 percent overall. The asset class has consistently outperformed the fund’s overall assumed return rate of 7.5 percent, but it has also routinely over the past decade missed CalPERS’ benchmarks.