Nebraska Investment Council reports $45.5 billion in assets and strong 2025 returns

State Investment Officer Ellen Hung presented the Nebraska Investment Council’s 2025 annual report to the Nebraska Retirement Systems Committee, reporting the council’s closing balance across 32 programs was $45.5 billion as of Dec. 31, 2025, up from $42.7 billion a year earlier.

Hung told senators the council completed an asset-liability study in 2025 and adopted target allocations that trimmed return-seeking public-equity exposure and increased core bonds for some defined-benefit plans. She said that change was prompted by strong recent returns and a desire to reduce risk for plans that are well-funded. "We completed an asset liability study and adopted new target asset allocations that balance future liabilities and expected growth of assets," Hung said.

Hung reported that defined benefit plans for schools and judges returned roughly 15.6% in 2025 (page references in the report show similar short-term outperformance), and that the general endowment returned 11.8% for 2025 and has a 7.1% return since inception. She also noted NIC added an infrastructure allocation to its real-assets portfolio and that the council retained Aon as general consultant and hired Axia for private-markets consulting.

On liquidity, Hung said the Operating Investment Pool declined from $9.2 billion to $7.9 billion between 2024 and 2025 because of outflows rather than investment losses; the OIP nevertheless earned 6.5% in 2025. She clarified that return calculations are independently computed by Northern Trust and confirmed by Aon. Hung invited senators to the council’s annual educational retreat scheduled for Oct. 15, 2026.

During questioning, senators asked whether short-term market uncertainty would prompt tactical allocation shifts. Hung said the council uses long-term views to set allocations and does not react to short-term market moves; she also said NIC has little exposure to private credit and recently scaled back private-markets exposure relative to many peers. Committee members also asked about the Omaha Retirement System (OSERS); Hung said several OSERS problem assets inherited by the council have been addressed and that 2025 returns for OSERS were stronger, although longer-term OSERS performance still shows variance relative to benchmarks.

The committee recorded no online comments on the NIC report and concluded the briefing before moving to the MPERS presentation.