Girard Miller

Recent Articles

• Outlook for Retirement Plan Investments
• Jan 22, 2009
• The retirement industry took a beating last year. But 2009 still provides some opportunities for the public sector.

• Top 12 Pension and Benefits Plan Issues for 2009: Part I
• Jan 22, 2009
• New paradigms for a new year

• Top 12 Pension and Benefits Plan Issues for 2009: Executive Summary
• Jan 22, 2009
• New paradigms for a new year

• Investing Public Cash in a 0% Market
• Jan 15, 2009
• Searching for incremental yields?

• Bonding for Benefits: POBs and 'OPEB-OBs'
• Jan 15, 2009
• New strategies to shatter the old POB paradigm

• Don't Squander the Stimulus!
• Jan 5, 2009
• How to prevent pork-barrel spending and bridges to nowhere

• Fee Fight: Public Employees Have Hidden Costs in Their Investment Plans.
• Dec 1, 2007
• The lack of "fee transparency" in 401(k) plans has caught the attention of the U.S. Congress, which may require defined-contribution (DC) plan providers to disclose all service fees. That's because fees in public and private DC plans are seldom presented clearly.

• Wellness--Or Else!
• Oct 1, 2007
• The latest buzzword in managing health care costs is "wellness"-- programs that emphasize prevention and personal accountability.

• Pension Divestment Politics
• Aug 1, 2007
• State politicians have returned to the slippery slopes of social investing and pension divestment. In the 1980s, South Africa was the target. Last year, it was Sudan, followed quickly by Iran, and now "all terrorist nations" are on blacklists in some states.

• Girard Miller's Benefit Beat: Bonding with OPEB
• Apr 1, 2007
• Some municipal bond underwriters are peddling the idea that public agencies should sell bonds now to "pre-fund" their promised retiree medical-benefit-plan liabilities.

• Guest Quarter: Retirees and Realities
• Feb 1, 2007
• New Jersey's ill-fated pension reform plan is history. As 2006 drew to a close, the governor and legislature, hoping to pay for property-tax reduction through pension plan reforms, failed to come to an agreement--much to the relief of thousands of state workers, unionized and otherwise, who marched on Trenton to make known their concerns about benefit adjustments.