"Of the 126 public plans in the National Association of State Retirement Administrators' [NASRA] Public Fund Survey, 43 have reduced their investment return assumptions since fiscal year 2008. The predominant rate is 8%, but that drops to 7.75% when weighted by asset size, with larger plans having lower return assumptions. Long term, the public funds have weathered economic downturns and negative investment returns well enough to exceed their assumed rates of investment return, according to the NASRA survey, which found a median annualized investment return of 8.3% for the 25 years ended Dec. 31, 2011."  MORE >>