March 16, 2010 — BNA reports that as of the end of 2009, public plans had 57 percent of their investments in equities while private sector pensions had on 38% in equities, according to NIRS.

“This is striking, because when we look back over the past decade, we can see that through 2006, pensions in the private and public sector invested quite similarly, each held about 60 percent of their assets in stock,” the report said.

Beth Almeida, NIRS executive director, told BNA March 15 that the report’s finding was based on the Federal Reserve’s Flow of Funds data for 2009, released March 11.

Almeida said public plans “did a good job in not running for the exits and dumping their equities during the market downturn.” Public plans took a “long-term, balanced approach” for investment purposes and were not influenced by short-term market declines, the report said.

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