The state’s Roth IRA program has signed up more than 20,500 employees and will soon mandate employer participation if no other plan exists.
Chris Ailman, the chief investment officer for the giant California teachers’ pension fund, is retiring. He showed the way in navigating a landscape of complexity, hazards and challenges to achieve steady investment success.
Since the Great Recession, states have moved to reform their public pension plans, making tough choices and frequently doing so with bipartisan support. Federal lawmakers should keep these lessons in mind.
With most public retirement systems seeing improved actuarial funding levels, there’s an opportunity to offer options that could make government compensation more competitive. But any impetus for change should come from pragmatic public employers, not partisans or lobbyists.
Research shows that traditional defined-benefit plans still play a key role in attracting and retaining government employees. To maximize these benefits’ impact, employers need to make sure their workers understand them.
Research shows that traditional defined-benefit retirement plans aren’t a path to improved recruitment or retention. When it comes to younger workers in particular, policymakers need to accept the new reality.
By 2030, an estimated 12 percent of people ages 75 and older will be working, more than doubling from 2000, due to longer lifespans and rising costs of living. In Florida, soaring insurance rates add to financial pressures.
State leaders promised a series of sweeping reforms to address problems in the disability pension system, just hours after the publication of a report highlighting poor management.
State budgets are on track for modest growth even as federal fiscal recovery funds wane, pension underfunding persists and AI promises (or threatens) to change everything.
There are millions of them, many of them still want to work, and they have a lot to offer. It’s time to rethink laws and pension rules that prevent them from contributing.
Future in Context
Mental health, climate and workforce are at the core of a complex cluster of issues confronting lawmakers this year.
Long-term financial incentives for investment success are commonplace in the private sector, but tricky to design in public retirement plans. The implementation challenges are structural, operational, methodological and, yes, political.
Human error on Jan. 3 resulted in the loss of thousands of files from 77 computer system servers for the Pennsylvania State Police and State Employees’ Retirement System. Some of the data has yet to be recovered.
To compete for winning investment performance in capital markets, the plans need to build stronger internal bench depth. Compensation is part of the picture, but they also need to beef up their training camps.
State lawmakers will be rushing to address crime, AI, housing and a host of other issues – including growing budget gaps – ahead of elections this year.
As inflation and interest rates ease, 2024 will be a perfect time for overdue multiyear strategic planning and keeping up with breakthrough information technologies.
Most Read
