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California Public Employees' Retirement System Experience Study, 1997 to 2007 (PDF)

69 pages. Excerpt: The purpose of this experience study is to compare the actual experience of the system against the current recommendations and to recommend new actuarial assumptions for rates of decrement and salary increase. The report presents the results of the experience study ofplans that participate in the California Public Employees Retirement Fund (State, schools and public agencies). The report is derived from data collected during fiscal years 1997 to 2007.

California Public Employees' Retirement System Pretty Liberal with the Cash for Investments

Excerpt: In the past three years, CalPERS has committed up to $760 million to Burkle for investments that aim to help underserved segments of society while, of course, still making money for the retirement fund. He has been putting the money to work in a string of deals that he says will benefit minorities, women, and blue-collar workers.

California State Government Ponders Money Contribution Obligation to Public Employees' Retirement System

Excerpt: The dramatic decline in Cal-PERS' value has had no impact on members' benefits which, fund officials emphasize, are protected by law. CalPERS provides about $11 billion annually in pension benefits, a figure that doesn't include health care. But the state of California and some 100 local governments are obligated to protect those pensions, and if CalPERS cannot do it because of its dwindling assets, then the state and other governments are obligated to step in.

California Public Employees Vote Against CalPERS Investment Activism

"The California Public Employees' Retirement System this month said no thank you to pension-fund activism. Government workers unseated Priya Mathur, the sitting CalPERS president. She was defeated by Jason Perez, a police-union official who criticized Ms. Mathur's focus on environmental, social and governance investing, or ESG. Mr. Perez emphasizes the agency's fiduciary duty to maximize investor returns."

Three Firms Vie to Run Drug Benefits for California Public Retirement System

"Express Scripts and UnitedHealth Group's OptumRx unit are each trying to unseat the current pharmacy-benefits contractor, CVS Health.... The agency's medical costs are closely watched as a harbinger of what big employers and their workers might be facing across the country. CalPERS spends more than $8 billion annually on medical care for 1.4 million state and local government employees, retirees and dependents. About a quarter of that, or $1.8 billion, goes to prescription drugs."

A Second California Court Says Public Employee Pension Set at Hire Can Be Cut

"A second appeals court panel has unanimously ruled that the public pension offered at hire can be cut without an offsetting new benefit, broadening support for what pension reformers call a 'game changer' if the state Supreme Court agrees.... The two appeals court rulings are contrary to previous rulings known as the 'California rule': The pension offered at hire becomes a vested right, protected by contract law, that can only be cut if offset by a comparable new benefit, erasing any savings." [Cal Fire Local 2881 v. California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), No. A142793 (Cal. Ct. App. Dec. 30, 2016)]

California State Teachers' Retirement System (calstrs) Records a $42.6 Billion Shortfall for 2008-09

Excerpt: To fully fund the Defined Benefit Program in 30 years after the 2008-09 losses would require a contribution rate increase of about 14 percent, Calstrs said. In December, Moody's said it sees a worsening trend in expected funding shortfalls of both the California Public Employees' Retirement System, or Calpers, and the California State Teachers' Retirement System.

California State Controller's Review of CalPERS Pension Controls and Mechanisms (PDF)

Dated September 2014. "The State Controller's Office (SCO) has completed a review of the California Public Employees ' Retirement System (CalPERS) to determine whether controls are in place to detect and prevent pension payments based on unusually large or excessive final compensation amounts, commonly known as pension spiking.... The available resources limit [CalPERS'] annual reviews to only 45, or 1.5% of the more than 3,000 reporting entities. At this current rate, pension spiking could go undetected for an extended period of time, as each reporting entity would be reviewed, at the earliest, every 66 years."

Link to Actuarial Cost Analysis by CalPERS of California Pension Reform Legislation Passed on Friday, Aug. 31

"The California Public Employees' Retirement System [on Aug. 31] released an Actuarial Cost Analysis of the ... Public Employee Pension Reform Act (PEPRA) of 2013.... CalPERS estimates the proposed legislation will save between $42 billion and $55 billion over 30 years for CalPERS administered pension plans.... CalPERS provides retirement benefits to 1.6 million State, public school, and local public agency employees, retirees, and their families, and health benefits to more than 1.3 million members."

Public Hearing on California's Public Pension Plans, April 22, 2010

Written testimony linked from target page: 'Defining the problem,' Girard Miller, Retirement Plan Consultant and Commentator; 'Understanding the employer's perspective,' Tony Oliveira, Member, CalPERS Board of Administration; President, California State Association of Countiesment; 'Employee efforts at the bargaining table,' Ron Cottingham, President, Peace Officers Research Association of California; 'Guiding principles for sustainability.' Richard Stensrud, Chief Executive Officer, Sacramento County Employees' Retirement System; 'Governor's Pension Reform Package,' David Crane, Special Advisor to the Governor for Jobs and Economic Growth, Governor's Office.