Traditional pensions and 401(k)-style government plans have undergone major changes in portfolio structure since 2000, mostly for the better. But recent market gyrations remind us that there are always opportunities for improvement.
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.
In what seems to be a coordinated effort between the governor, attorney general and secretary of state, six lawsuits challenging voter-approved property tax cuts and increases to teachers’ pensions have been blocked.
High-profile departures of senior-level executives reflect not only an aging workforce and a more politicized operating environment but also salaries and benefits that need to be competitive with the private sector’s.
City officials have until Nov. 1, 2024 to submit a plan to the state as to how they will close the $3 billion shortfall and have the system fully funded by 2055, but it remains unclear how officials will do so.
Halloween seems an apt metaphor for what state and local financiers will encounter over the next year and beyond: plenty of tricks but a modest supply of treats.
The annual Medicare-plus advertising blitz now under way should remind us that smarter post-employment benefit designs for state and local employees are long overdue.
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