N.C. Pension Plan Sees Record Returns In First Half of 2025

Last Wednesday, North Carolina State Treasurer Brad Briner reported that for the first half of 2025, the North Carolina pension plan yielded $8 billion in investment returns. The North Carolina Retirement System outperformed the U.S. stock market, and returned $3.5 billion over expectations. The increased returns significantly cut down on the $16 billion deficit Briner inherited when he took office.

On the returns seen in the first half of 2025, State Treasurer Brad Briner said, “We owe our retirees a lot of money. The good news is that we have a lot of money set aside to pay those promises. My campaign was all about improving our investment performance and I got good news for you. We have done just that in the first six months of the year. Returning over $8 billion in investment gains. That is more than the stock market by itself would have delivered and double what we need to make to keep our pension system solvent.”

For the first six months of 2025, the North Carolina Retirement System had a 6.11% return, this is roughly $7.7 billion after adjusting for net benefit payments. At the end of 2024, the pension fund was at $126.5 billion, and now after some adjustments the balance is at $133.8 billion.  The actuarial required rate of return is 6.50% on an annual basis, 3.25% over six months. If the plan earned only the 3.25% for the period, the gain would have been roughly $4.1 billion rather than $7.7 billion. The plan therefore added roughly $3.6 billion in value over the first six months of the year relative to the actuarial required rate of return.