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Pew Center Report Presents Flawed Picture of Current State of Public Pensions, Teachers Say

"[B]y relying on FY 2010 data, 'the dates the [recent Pew Center] study is using to measure the condition of many public pension plans are near the low point of the recent investment market decline.... [Further, in] order to arrive at the $1.38 trillion [shortfall] figure, Pew once again combines pensions with retiree healthcare. As NCTR and [the National Association of State Retirement Administrators] have noted in the past, retiree healthcare cost containment options, financing structures and benefit protections are entirely different from those of pensions. Pew's decision to couple retiree healthcare with pension liabilities distracts from the issues States face with these very different benefits."

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States Face $1 Trillion Pension Funding Gap, According to Report from Pew Center on the States

Excerpt: The report says almost all state pension plans are underfunded. Two states -- Illinois and Kansas -- have set aside less than 60 percent of the money they'll need to pay benefits. Six others are underfunded by a third or more.  MORE >>

Pew Center Study Says 'The $1.26 Trillion Figure Is Based on States' Own Actuarial Assumptions.'

"Those assumptions were legislated by politicians to actuaries who understand what numbers their clients want to see .... low, and that's what they, and the public, get. Using those assumptions the shortfall for pensions comes to $660 billion. Use 30-year treasury rates and it's $2.4 trillion."  MORE >>

Pew Report on State Retiree Benefit Funding 'Flawed, According to NCPERS

The National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems ... says a new analysis from the Pew Center on the States 'is seriously flawed and, as a result, comes to misguided conclusions that dramatically overstate the financial challenges facing state pension plans.'

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Pew Misleads States by Pushing Cash Balance Plans

"Pew trumpeted the adoption of the cash balance plan as a 'successful public pension reform.' In reality, though, moving to a cash balance plan has failed to fix the problems facing Kentucky's public pension systems. Rather than improving the 'fiscal health of the pension system by billions of dollars,' Kentucky's pension funding level has continued to fall.... [C]hanging the plan design didn't solve the true problem: mismanagement by the state."  MORE >>

Pew Misleads States by Pushing Cash Balance Plans

"Cash balance plans are an inefficient hybrid of defined benefit and defined contribution plans that manage to combine the worst of both plans. Cash balance plans are known for being opaque; it's often difficult for participants to know exactly how much they'll have in retirement.... Pew really made its mark promoting cash balance plans in Kentucky.... In Alabama, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, Pew has actively sought changes to traditional pensions for public employees."  MORE >>

Pew Report Finds Benefits Funding Gap Continues to Widen; Only 5% of Retiree Health is Funded

"The gap between what states owe their retirees and what they've set aside to pay them [in combined pension and health benefits] has grown to at least $1.38 trillion, according to the latest study from the Pew Center on the States. The report, based on data from the 2010 fiscal year, shows the gap is up about 9 percent compared to FY 2009 data and up 38 percent compared to data from FY 2008.... The report finds that state pension plans have $2.31 trillion set aside to cover $3.07 trillion in obligations, leaving a gap of about $757 billion. States have set aside only about 5 percent of the $660 billion in non-pension benefits -- namely retiree health care -- leaving a $627 billion gap in that pool."  MORE >>

Joint Response to Washington Post Reporting on Pew Study (PDF)

1 page. "[The National Association of State Retirement Administrators, the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems, and the National Council on Teacher Retirement] submitted [this] Letter to the Editor of (The Washington Post; free registration required) in response to their mis-reporting on The Pew Center on the States' report on public sector pensions and retiree health care."  MORE >>

Pew Urges Focus on Expanding Workplace Retirement Plan Access

"[A recent issue brief] explains how workers who lack access to employer-sponsored retirement savings plans face financial hurdles making it difficult for them to save, and as a result, their future heavy reliance on government-provided social services will come at an enormous cost to both state and federal taxpayers."  MORE >>

Flaws in the Pew Report on Retirement Readiness

"[T]he Pew report appears to assume no further contributions, either by employer or employee, to the defined contribution balances as of 2010. That's right, no further contributions beyond the self-reported participant balances of 2010, and no earnings projection on those assumed non-existent contributions, either. This assumption likely serves to understate the future retirement readiness of younger workers, who have years, and in many cases decades, of savings ahead of them."

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Text of NCPERS Response to Pew Charitable Trusts Study, 'A Widening Gap in Cities' (PDF)

"Unfortunately, the analysis presented in the Pew Charitable Trusts' new report 'A Widening Gap in Cities' presents a distorted and outdated picture of the health of municipal pension plans -- primarily because the data Pew worked with is four years old. Examining data from 2009 -- immediately following the unexpected market collapse of the Fall 2008 that precipitated the Great Recession - may provide a valuable history lesson, but it cannot yield a realistic representation of the status of municipal pension plans today."  MORE >>

Future Retirees at Risk of Downward Mobility, Pew Finds

"The report estimates that, at the median, Americans born between 1966 and 1975 -- so-called Gen-Xers -- will be able to replace just half their pre-retirement income once they stop working, well below the minimum 70 percent replacement rates recommended by most financial planners. Late baby boomers -- which the report defines as those born between 1956 and 1965 -- will be able to replace 60 percent of their working incomes in retirement, the report estimates. Both replacement rates are below what financial experts say is necessary for a secure retirement."

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Public Pension Plan Group Dismisses Pew Public Pension Report: 'Flawed, Out of Date' (PDF)

"The recently released 2012 NCPERS Fund Membership Study -- which relies on the most current data available, Fiscal Year 2011 data from no less than 147 public pension funds -- paints a much different, much more accurate and far more positive picture. The truth is that the vast majority of public pension funds continue to be solidly funded."

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A Global Look at Public Perceptions of Health Problems, Priorities, and Donors: The Kaiser/Pew Global Health Survey (PDF)

Excerpt: Specifically, the survey looks at what people consider to be the top problem facing their country, such as HIV/AIDS, crime, pollution and political corruption. It also examines the top public health priorities in low and middle income countries, such as preventing and treating HIV, fighting hunger and malnutrition, and accessing health care.  MORE >>

Comments on the Pew Report on Trends in Political Values and Core Attitudes: 1987-2007

Excerpt: This highly credible report does confirm that there has been a genuine shift in political values and core attitudes of the American public. Increasing concerns about personal financial security and about the plight of the disadvantaged add further support to the prevailing view that we have reached yet another point in history wherein comprehensive health care reform may be achievable.  MORE >>

Five Ways to Solve the $1 Trillion Gap in Under-Funded State Retirement Systems

Excerpt: A train wreck waiting to happen. That's the only way to describe the mess that state pension systems are in right now, according to a report published today by the Pew Center on the States. According to Pew, there's a $1 trillion gap between the $3.35 trillion in pension, health care and other retirement benefits states promised their current and retired workers as of fiscal year 2008 and the $2.35 trillion they have on hand to pay them.

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Statement of Pension Rights Center at Treasury Department Public Session on Central States Pension Fund Benefit Reduction Application

"Here's how the Central States application flunks every condition set by MPRA: First, the application fails to demonstrate that the Central States Pension Fund took all reasonable steps to avoid insolvency ... Second, the plan did not equitably distribute the benefit cuts.... Third, even with the steep and unjust proposed cuts, the ability of the Central States Pension Fund to survive for the long term is extremely uncertain -- a key factor that the law says must be considered before the Treasury Department can approve any application to cut retiree pension benefits.... Mr. Feinberg, please reject the application.... There are better solutions."  MORE >>

Statement of Pension Rights Center to ERISA Advisory Council on Permissive Transfers of Uncashed Checks from ERISA Plans to State Unclaimed Property Funds (PDF)

"[A]lthough State unclaimed property programs are very helpful to individuals who have lost track of non-retirement assets, they are not the best arrangement for people who have earned 401(k), pension, profit sharing and other retirement plan benefits. A far better approach would be if a federal agency were designated as the repository for uncashed checks. The PBGC is the logical choice since the agency already has extensive experience managing its successful programs for terminating plans and has a website that is very user friendly."  MORE >>

Letter by Pension Rights Center: Congress Misunderstands DOL Regs in Passing Resolution Against Payroll-Deduction IRA Programs Established by States (PDF)

"The [DOL's] 2016 guidance does nothing more than clarify that state legislation providing for payroll deduction into an IRA is not an employer retirement plan. The employer has no involvement beyond transmitting payroll deductions to the IRA negotiated by the state with a private vendor.... These voluntary payroll-deduction IRAs plans are aimed at providing retirement income to employees of small employers who do not offer plans. They are modest plans, subject to the low $5,500 IRA limits, and will not compete with existing defined benefit plans or 401(k) plans (which have higher contribution limits)."  MORE >>

Washington State Call Center Logs 900 Calls On First Day

"The phones are already busy at the Washington State Exchange call center where customer service representatives are fielding hundreds of questions about the state's new health insurance exchange, slated to open for enrollment Oct. 1. The call center ... took 900 calls [the first] day.... [T]he first call came in before 7:30 a.m., the official start time. There were more than 100 calls within the first hour."  MORE >>