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Public Employee Pension Systems

Under a new law, employers in California are responsible for CalPERS overpayments under certain circumstances.  SB 278, enacted on Sept. 27, 2021, is intended to ensure that a retired CalPERS member is protected from a retroactive clawback of their benefits when alleged misapplication or... READ MORE
Employers helping to facilitate employees’ financial wellness is becoming more widespread. The benefits of this for employees is obvious, but a session at the recent Plan Sponsor Council of America Annual Conference held in Scottsdale, AZ offered another take: it can be good for an employer’s... READ MORE
The National Tax-Deferred Savings Association (NTSA) and the American Retirement Association are pleased to announce the publication of  Best Practices for 403(b) and 457(b) Plans. The manual is designed to provide employers, consultants, distributors, product providers and TPAs with the... READ MORE
The Oregon Retirement Savings Program (ORSP, or OregonSaves) on June 22 filed a temporary amendment to its program rules with the Oregon Secretary of State’s office. The amendment modifies language related to enrollment in the program. It comes a little more than a week before the July 1 launch of... READ MORE
The Carolinas share a border, half of their names, and a need to address problems with their state pension plans. But while both must act, their problems are as different as north is from south.The Tar Heel StateNorth Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell (R) is still new, having taken office just this... READ MORE
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) on June 12 signed into law Senate Bill 1, a measure that provides new state employees hired after Jan. 1, 2019, including teachers, with three retirement benefits from which they can choose.The state senate had passed the bill on June 5; three days later the... READ MORE
Federal employees’ COLAs would be eliminated under the fiscal year 2018 budget proposal released by the White House on May 23.According to FedSmith, the budget the Trump administration unveiled proposes eliminating the cost-of-living adjustment for current and future federal retirees under the... READ MORE
President Trump has signed legislation that overturns the Obama administration’s ERISA safe harbor rule for state-run auto-IRA programs for private sector workers.He signed the legislation on the last day he could to avoid a pocket veto of the measure. On May 3 the Senate passed H.J. Res. 66 by a... READ MORE
No sooner had the U.S. Senate voted to unwind the Obama administration’s safe harbor exempting state-run auto-IRA programs from ERISA, than a pair of Senate Democrats introduced legislation designed to restore the exemption.The Preserve Rights of States and Political Subdivisions to Encourage... READ MORE
Public pensions’ funded ratios improved in the first quarter of 2017 — and some markedly so. That according to a report on the 100 largest U.S. public pension plans.According to Milliman’s 100 Public Pension Plan Funding Index, the overall funded ratio for those plans stood at72% by March 31. In... READ MORE
Reporting and disclosure are functions all pension systems must perform, and public systems are no exception. So how are they doing? A recent study takes a look.“Pension Reporting and Disclosure: The Current State of Practice and Examples of What Works Well” takes a look at how major pension... READ MORE
The Texas Public Employee Retirement Systems (TEXPERS) has released a report on the results of the strategies its local systems have followed for allocation and investment of assets.“Report on the Asset Allocation and Investment Performance of Texas Public Employee Retirement Systems,” released at... READ MORE
More than 50 bills will be heard for the first time in the Illinois House Personnel and Pensions Committee on March 30. The bills include measures that would affect state and local retirement plans.The retirement-related bills that would affect teachers include the following: HB 3867, which would... READ MORE
State and local governments’ defined benefit assets ended 2016 on a positive note, according to the Federal Reserve, which says that public DB plan assets grew in the 4th quarter.The National Association of State Retirement Plan Administrators reports that funded public DB assets grew by 1.3%, to a... READ MORE
It’s no secret that public-sector pension plans in the United States face many challenges. But is there more than raw figures at play? A recent paper suggests that the way accounting rules are applied has something to do with how their condition is perceived and addressed.In “Funding Public... READ MORE
Public pension plans across the country face many challenges, to put it mildly — and among them, says a recent report, are the investment return assumptions for those plans.In “NASRA Issue Brief: Public Pension Plan Investment Return Assumptions,” the National Association of State Retirement... READ MORE
Funded ratios have improved for private- and public-sector pension plans since the November elections, according to recent reports.The Wilshire Consulting division of Wilshire Associates reported that the aggregate funded ratios of corporate pension plans improved in November by 3.3 percentage... READ MORE
Public funds are continuing to become more cost-effective and receptive to making adaptations, according to a study of public-sector retirement systems’ results and practices in 2016. The National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS) conducted the 2016 Public Retirement Systems... READ MORE
Retirement investments and advice are among the examination priorities of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) for 2017, the SEC said on Jan. 12. The OCIE’s priorities reflect a continuing focus on protecting retail investors, says... READ MORE
Life is fraught with inconsistency, and a new study by Lincoln Financial Group (LFG) shows that extends to providing services to governmental retirement plans. But the study also suggests the antidote to those inconsistencies and to participation and deferral rates that are not as high as plan... READ MORE

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