Illinois Valley Times

After projecting its investments would grow by 5 percent, the Peru Firefighters Pension Fund netted 1.5 percent on its investments in 2018, according to data reported to the Illinois Department of Insurance Pension Division.

The DOI biennial report detailing the health of each of the pension funds shows the Peru Firefighters Pension Fund's had $2,321,781 in investment assets last year. It paid $9,221 in investment expenses and gained $44,196 in investment income.

Pension funds and retirement systems set actuarial assumptions to project returns on investments to cover obligations to pensioners. When they fall short, the difference has to be made up from other sources – primarily from taxpayers and member contributions.

	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
Investment assets	$1,988,552	$2,046,468	$2,105,119	$2,205,436	$2,321,781
Investment expenses	$0	$8,491	$8,582	$8,562	$9,221
Investment income	$29,688	$58,290	$61,640	$67,085	$44,196
Net investment income to assets	1.5	2.4	2.5	2.7	1.5
Actuarial assumption	5	5	5	5	5