13.19% SOUNDS IMPRESSIVE. BUT WHY IS SRA CELEBRATING THREE BASIS POINTS?
Maryland’s pension fund had a strong year. But SRA’s own numbers show benchmark outperformance falling from 59 basis points to just 3 in three fiscal years — and the headline return does not mean individual pensions increased 13.19%.
On August 18, the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System released what sounds, at first glance, like extraordinary news.
The Board of Trustees, chaired by Maryland State Treasurer Dereck E. Davis, announced that Maryland’s pension investment fund generated a 13.19% net investment return for fiscal year 2026.
The fund now stands at approximately $82.1 billion.
But there is something unusual about the announcement itself.
SRA’s headline reads:
“Maryland State Retirement and Pension System exceeds benchmark with 13.16% return in fiscal year 2026.”
Yet SRA’s own release says the actual return was 13.19%.
The 13.16% figure appears instead to correspond to the policy benchmark: SRA says the 13.19% actual return outperformed that benchmark by only three basis points.
That distinction is not trivial.
Because once the numbers underneath the headline are examined, a different story emerges.
13.19% actual return.
Approximately 13.16% policy benchmark.
Three basis points of outperformance.
And that raises a simple question:
WHY IS THREE BASIS POINTS THE BASIS FOR AN “EXCEEDS BENCHMARK” HEADLINE?
To be clear, a 13.19% investment return is good news.
Investment performance matters enormously to the financial health of a pension system responsible for the retirement security of hundreds of thousands of Marylanders.
But if the story being emphasized is that Maryland “exceeded benchmark,” then Marylanders deserve to know by how much.
This year, the answer is:
Three basis points.
And three years of SRA’s own performance announcements make that number considerably more interesting.
