The confidence of government pension fund administrators that they will be able to meet the needs of their plan participants rose slightly this year to 7.9 points out of 10 from 7.8 last year, according to a survey released by the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS) Monday.
The funds rode the wave of a booming stock market with annual returns on one-year investments at 14.5 percent in 2014, an over 50 percent gain from 2013.
For longer-term investments, returns were only modestly higher: to 10.3 percent from 10 percent for three-year holdings, and 8.2 percent, unchanged, for 20-year investments.
Investment management fees rose to 0.611 percent in 2014 from 0.573 percent in 2013.
The fund managers said they planned to lower the share of stocks in their portfolios and raise the ratio of funds devoted to bonds, real estate and private equity.
The poll was conducted in September and October of 187 state, local and provincial government pension funds with more than 11.8 million active and retired members and with assets exceeding $1.8 trillion.