2024 Annual Comprehensive Report

Investment Policy and Long-Term Expected Rate of Return Investment of the OPEB Trust funds are made pursuant to a Deposit Agreement with the North Carolina Department of State Treasurer. The State Treasurer in his discretion may invest the proceeds in equities of certain publicly held companies and long or short term fixed income investments as detailed in G.S. 147-69.2(b) (1-6) and (8). Funds deposited are held in the State Treasurer’s Equity Index Fund, 67.39%, the Bond Index Fund, 32.59%, and the Short Term Money Market Fund, 0.02%. At June 30, 2024, the Plan assets totaled $39,451,167. A separate report was not issued for the Plan. The Plan’s investment policy, adopted by the City Council in April 2017, allows for investment in instruments authorized by G. S. 159-30 as well as investments available to the North Carolina State Treasurer when managing funds with the same purpose. The investment policy may be amended by a majority vote of Council members.

The following was the City Council’s adopted asset allocation policy as of June 30, 2024:

Target

Average Long-Term Expected Return

Long-Term Expected Real Rate of Return

Asset Class

Allocation

Equity IndexFund Bond IndexFund

60.0% 40.0% 100.0%

6.75% 2.84%

4.56% 0.65%

Total

For the year-ended June 30, 2024, the annual money-weighted rate of return on Plan investments, net of investment expense, was 13.73%. The money-weighted rate of return expresses investment performance, net of investment expense, adjusted for the changing amounts actually invested. Investments are valued at fair value. The projected long-term investment returns and inflation assumptions are developed through review of current and historical capital markets data, sell-side investment research, consultant whitepapers, and historical performance of investment strategies. Best estimate ranges of expected future real rates of return are developed for each major asset class. These projections are combined to produce the long-term expected rate of return by weighting the expected future real rates of return by the target asset allocation percentage and by adding expected inflation. The target allocation and best estimates of arithmetic real rates of return for each major asset class as of June 30, 2024 are summarized in the table above. The long-term nominal rates of return underlying the real rates of return are 10-year geometric compounded annualized figures. The real rates of return are calculated from nominal rates by multiplicatively adjusting for a long-term inflation assumption of 2.19%. All rates of return and inflation are annualized.

Net OPEB Liability of the City The components of the net OPEB liability of the City at June 30, 2024 were as follows:

Total OPEB liability

$ 151,475,036

Plan fiduciary net position City's net OPEB liability

39,451,167

$ 112,023,869

Plan fiduciary net position as a percentage of the total OPEB liability

26.04%

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