"[I]ndependent journalist and teacher Jim Vail documented a striking confrontation between Teacher Trustee Erika Meza and the Chicago Teachers' Pension Fund's external consultant, Callan Associates ... The exchange highlights the growing tension between rank-and-file educator fiduciaries and institutional insiders pushing private markets -- especially private equity -- with all of the attendant cost, complexity, and opacity that has plagued many U.S. public pension systems." MORE >>
"Although the Court's analysis relied on statutes specifically applicable to municipal pension systems and the City's charter, the statutory frameworks governing other local systems -- including for counties and cities participating in CalPERS -- contain materially similar requirements supporting the broader applicability of the Court's reasoning." [City of San José v. Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assoc., No. S285426 (Calif. Dec. 18, 2025)] MORE >>
"Public pension funds are entrusted with safeguarding financial security for their members and beneficiaries. Yet even well-managed systems face risks when participant records are incomplete, deaths go unreported, or beneficiaries cannot be located.... Protecting the future requires pension funds to conduct timely audits that close data gaps, strengthen system integrity, and ensure accurate benefit delivery." MORE >>
"There is a popular myth in the financial media that reaching an 80% funded status is the ultimate benchmark for pension plan health. In reality, ... funded status alone rarely provides a complete picture of a pension system's well-being.... Public pension plans in this position may want to consider [specific] actions to help protect and build on this valuable ground gained.... [P]lans that are not quite there should also take a cue from these concepts[.]" MORE >>
"The main takeaways are that in addition to selecting qualified staff, the public funds with the best funded status and risk management are those where there are: [1] effective governance and delegation of responsibilities between Boards and investment staff, [2] continuity of tenure in both organizations, [3] empowerment of staff to be long-term investors, and [4] a collaborative environment." MORE >>
"The estimated funded status of the 100 largest U.S. public pension plans increased from 85.4% as of September 30, 2025, to 86.3% as of October 31, 2025 ... This surpasses the highest funded ratio previously recorded [by Milliman] -- 85.5%, set on December 31, 2021 -- and marks the seventh straight month of funding improvement, the longest run of good news since the 2016 inception of the PPFI." MORE >>
"The average account balance for public-sector DC plan participants increased with age and tenure.... The average and median employee contribution amounts increased with age.... The average and median employee contribution rates (employee contributions divided by salary) were 6.4 percent and 3.7 percent.... Participants in their 20s had the largest allocations to target-date funds (71.3 percent)." MORE >>
"[T]he court of appeal concluded that the Regents had never communicated with members in a way that would reasonably create any confusion over the availability of retroactive retirement rights, and thus did not have a fiduciary duty to dispel such confusion. [The court also held] that retirement systems' fiduciary duties to their members do not mean that systems have a duty to maximize each member's benefits. That is, systems are not under any obligation to provide a member bespoke advice that will maximize their retirement allowance in light of their own particular circumstances." [Mass v. The Regents of the Univ. of Calif., No. A170424 (Calif. Ct. App. Oct. 28, 2025)] MORE >>
"The California pension approved the proposed change to implement TPA -- the first institutional allocator in the U.S. to do so -- by July 2026.... The total portfolio approach views and manages portfolio assets under a single objective, in contrast to strategic asset allocation, in which separate asset classes are siloed and managed separately. TPA has become increasingly appealing for asset owners in recent years." MORE >>
"State and local governments have been making higher pension contributions to their employees' pension funds, but not because public pension benefits have become more generous. Instead, growing debt from past underfunding of pension benefits has largely driven the increase in contribution rates. Today, the majority of contributions made to public pension systems go toward amortizing unfunded liabilities rather than funding the benefits promised to current employees." MORE >>
"[B]eginning January 1, 2026, if you participate in a governmental 457(b) plan, are age 50 and older and earned more than $145,000 (indexed annually) in the prior calendar year, you must make age-50 catch-up contributions on a Roth basis.... For governmental plans, especially those with multiple participating employers or those that may not have offered Roth contributions before, the Roth catch-up requirement introduces new complexity." MORE >>
"[F]ederal policies have real, measurable impacts on state and local budgets and public pensions. Plan sponsors should not look to contributions and benefits as the place to cut costs ... [P]ension funds receiving their full actuarially determined contribution ... reported funded ratios 20 percentage points higher than those that did not. Over time, this translates into substantial taxpayer savings and greater financial stability." MORE >>
"23 states each had over $20 billion in unfunded pension liabilities at the end of the 2024 fiscal year ... Two states had more than $200 billion in public pension debt: California ($265 billion in unfunded pension liabilities) and Illinois ($201 billion). Two other states reported more than $90 billion in unfunded pension liabilities: Texas ($92.2 billion) and New Jersey ($92 billion)." MORE >>
"Covering a little more than 750,000 lives, the [North Carolina State Health Plan (SHP)] spends between plan costs and employee contributions nearly $4.5 billion annually ... [The SHP] faces an estimated deficit of greater than $500 million for Calendar Year (CY) 2026 and a total projected deficit of $949 million by the end of CY2027. In this article, [the authors] review the challenges that drove the fiscal instability of the North Carolina SHP.... [They] then describe the dynamic, market-driven tools that we are applying to efficiently and effectively control costs with sensitivity to the varied needs of more than 750,000 SHP members." MORE >>
"September was the sixth straight month of funding improvement for the 100 largest U.S. public pension plans ... During the month, the plans' estimated funded status continued to climb, rising from 84.2% as of August 31, 2025, to 85.4% as of September 30, 2025 ... [T]he gap between estimated plan assets and liabilities narrowed to $971 billion as of September 30, 2025. The last time this deficit fell below $1 trillion was also at the end of 2021, when the funding gap was $833 billion." MORE >>
"This letter responds to your request for an opinion concerning how to calculate the number of hours of [FMLA] leave available to correctional law enforcement employees who work a fixed 'Pitman Schedule' requiring 12-hour shifts over a 2-week cycle that includes mandatory overtime.... [An] employer seeking to calculate the hourly equivalent of FMLA leave available to an employee should do so based on the employee's actual, normally scheduled workweek.... [A]dditional voluntary hours that the employee may work should not be counted in his or her FMLA entitlement calculation." MORE >>
"Public sector entities seeking exemption from Social Security must demonstrate that they comply with the requirement that they sponsor a pension plan whose benefits are 'comparable' to Social Security. The most common method of demonstrating compliance is to show that the plan benefits are equal to or greater than a safe harbor that was established in 1991. But does the safe harbor truly ensure that benefits are comparable?" MORE >>
"Mark Lee Greenblatt who served as Interior Department inspector general, 2019-25 ... opines, 'There's no downside to having independent inspectors general for public pensions.' ... It's no mystery why not a single public pension in America -- not a single one -- has followed Warren Buffett's sagely advice to invest index funds. Not a single public pension in America -- not a single one -- has outperformed, or even met, the index rate of return. Indeed, it seems there's no downside to looting public pensions. " MORE >>
"Employers typically finance OPEB obligations through either: [1] a Pay-As-You-Go (PayGo) approach; or [2] prefunding through a dedicated trust. In this article, we will compare these two approaches by highlighting their advantages and drawbacks, and comparing their financial impact through a practical case study. This article is intended to increase awareness in the advantages of prefunding OPEB benefits, while also balancing current budget priorities with long-term fiscal sustainability." MORE >>
"In the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025, the median public pension plan gained 11.3%, well in excess of the median assumed rate of return of 7.00%. This marks the third consecutive fiscal year where the median public DB plan’s return was well in excess of the assumed rate of return (2023: 8.9%; 2024: 10.6%). This bodes well for an improvement in funded status across public plans." MORE >>
"[In] the proposed regulation issued on January 13, 2025, collectively bargained plans were given additional implementation time. We respectfully request that governmental plans receive the same extension. We submit that governmental plans often face complexities in local law enabling requirements, payroll systems, and administration that most private sector employers do not. Indeed, these challenges can be seen as not dissimilar to those faced by collectively bargained plans." MORE >>
"Unfunded retiree health care debt is becoming an unsustainable financial burden for state and local governments, as the price tag for Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) grows larger with medical inflation, while assets set aside to pre-fund these obligations remain low.... [A recent analysis] found that states and large municipalities collectively reported $789 billion in unfunded OPEB liabilities, exceeding the $753 billion in unfunded pension liabilities, as of 2022." MORE >>
"More than half of states prohibit automatic enrollment for public employees, and only about half of the retirement systems that could adopt automatic enrollment provisions have chosen to do so.... Factors explaining lack of interest in automatic enrollment by public employers include increased overhead costs, the perception that governments are already providing an adequate retirement plan, and union concerns about the impact of reduced take-home pay." MORE >>
"From 2001 to 2023 ... 99% of public pension funds failed to meet their average assumed rates of return.... Despite widespread reductions in assumed returns over the last decade ... 86% of public pension plans still assume returns higher than their 23-year average -- which suggests that further downward revisions ... are likely on the horizon, along with more increases in unfunded pension liabilities and catch-up hikes in government pension contributions." MORE >>
"As a growing number of U.S. states consider or enact legislation allowing public pension funds to invest in cryptocurrency, a new report ... [urges] states to instead implement statutory prohibitions to protect retiree security.... The report highlights several critical reasons why cryptocurrency investments are deemed unsuitable for public pension portfolios." MORE >>
