Core Fund
The Core Fund is the largest of the two trust funds that make up the Wisconsin
Retirement System (WRS). Its name was changed from Fixed Fund in 2006. This fund
consists of retirement contributions made by, and on behalf of, participants in
the WRS and investment earnings on those contributions. All participants have at
least half, if not all, of their retirement contributions in the Core Fund. Some
participants may have elected to have half of their retirement contributions
made into the Variable Fund.
The basic objective of the Core Fund is to earn an optimum long-term return while
taking acceptable risk.
Initially, the Fund mainly consisted of fixed income investments, such as bonds,
but the percentage of stocks has increased over the years. A majority of
the Core Fund is now invested in stock, but it also includes a
mixture of other assets. As a result, it is considered a fully diversified, balanced
fund invested for the long-term needs of the retirement system.
Diversification allows for more consistent performance under a wide range of
economic conditions. In addition, the impact of the Core Fund returns are
smoothed over five years.