Rockford Sun

After projecting its investments would grow by 6.00 percent, the Cherry Valley FPD Firefighter's Pension Fund netted 1.61 percent on its investments in 2016, 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 Cherry Valley FPD Firefighter's Pension Fund's had $3,120,184 in investment assets last year. It paid $11,670 in investment expenses and gained $62,020 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.

	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
Investment assets	$1,630,006	$1,991,790	$2,290,599	$2,740,152	$3,120,184
Investment expenses	$5,830	$7,318	$8,562	$10,072	$11,670
Investment income	$104,765	$79,854	$17,742	$132,768	$62,020
Net investment income to assets	6.07%	3.64%	0.40%	4.48%	1.61%
Actuarial assumption	5.00%	5.00%	5.00%	6.00%	6.00%