Public Employee Pension Systems

State pension plans’ unfunded liabilities are on track to grow to $1.75 trillion, says Moody’s Investors Service. The rating agency said on Oct. 7 that it expects state public pensions to grow by 40% to that amount through fiscal 2017.By June 30, Moody’s says, the 100 largest U.S. public pension... READ MORE

Public pension plans face sobering liabilities, and recently released data provides a look at funding and also where the states stand.Work to DoHalf the states’ pension plans are 70% funded or less, Bloomberg has reported based on data from 2014. The 10 states whose funding woes were the most acute... READ MORE

A recent study argues that converting public sector defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans may not be without consequences.In “Economic Volatility: Hidden Societal Cost of Prevailing Approaches to Pension Reforms,” the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS)... READ MORE

The IRS has issued a proposed rule on the determination of whether the normal retirement age under a governmental pension plan under Internal Revenue Code Section 414(d) satisfies the requirements of Code Section 401(a) and whether the payment of definitely determinable benefits that begin at the... READ MORE

The Nutmeg State has taken another step toward the creation of a state-run retirement program for private sector workers with the release of a lengthy report detailing the potential elements of such a program.In 2014, Connecticut enacted legislation creating the Connecticut Retirement Security... READ MORE

DB plans had a tough month in September. Recent reports indicate that both private and public plans’ funded status declined.Corporate plans’ funded ratio dropped to 81.8% in September according to BNY Mellon Fiduciary Solutions, BenefitsPro reports. That drop was primarily fueled by losses in the... READ MORE

A new study of DB and DC plans goes a little farther than just comparing them — suggesting that the best approach may be to move past the debate over which one is better.In “Defined-Contribution Pensions Are Cost-Effective,” the Manhattan Institute looks at widely held perceptions about the... READ MORE

There has been no shortage of bad news for public pension systems from coast to coast. But the U.S. Census Bureau has just released some good news — the assets of state and local public pension systems grew in 2014.The report, “2014 Annual Survey of Public Pensions: State and Locally Administered... READ MORE

The earnings that public pension plans have realized, and their holdings, have changed little since the fourth quarter of 2014. That according to the U.S. Census Bureau in its quarterly survey of public pensions during the first quarter of 2015, which it released on June 25. The survey provides... READ MORE