The Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System announced Monday that it earned a 29.6% net return in fiscal year 2021, 0.8 percentage points more than its policy benchmark and the second-highest fiscal year annual return in the system’s 63-year history. IPERS’ performance means it added nearly $9 billion to a trust fund now valued at close to $43 billion, the agency said in a press release. “Markets were very good to investors in fiscal year 2021,” IPERS CEO Greg Samorajski said. “In addition, IPERS was able to add significant value on top of those results, while maintaining the conservative investment posture established by the IPERS Investment Board.” IPERS compared favorably with other large public pension funds, beating the median return of 27.01% and the first quartile point of 29.31% for a peer group of large public pension funds, according to Wilshire, IPERS’ investment consultant.