As the world’s population lives longer, it will become increasingly important for plan sponsors, retirement advisors, regulators, and financial firms to focus closely on how older persons fare in the face of rising difficulties with cognition and financial management.
Resources
Mercatus Center: Ranking the States by Fiscal Condition 2017 Edition
On the basis of its fiscal solvency in five separate categories, Connecticut ranks 37th for fiscal health among the US states—a significant jump from last year’s ranking of 50th.
Center for Retirement Research at Boston College: Public Plans Data 2017
The latest PPD update features: Expanded 2016 plan data. The creation of a new “Colorado State and School” plan for years 2001 to 2004. Colorado state legislation enacted in 2004 (Senate Bill 04-257) provided for the separation of the Colorado State and School Divisions. To better reflect this policy change, data for Colorado State and […]
Urban Institute: Evaluating Pension Reform Options with the Public Pension Simulator
Covering 14 million state and local government employees, public pension plans typically provide lifetime retirement benefits based on years of service and the salary earned near the end of a career. These pensions provide meaningful retirement security to employees covered by a plan for a full career, but offer few benefits to shorter-term employees, a drawback that is becoming increasingly problematic as people change jobs more frequently.
Tax Foundation: How Well Funded are Pension Plans in Your State?
According to preliminary 2015 data, state and local pension debt now exceeds a combined $1.5 trillion. Strong returns on investment (averaging 17 percent in 2014) have helped to reduce the debt, but the message is still clear: many states are facing a pension crisis.
Urban Institute: State and Local Employee Pension Plan Database
The table below displays benefit rules for the state-administered plans in our database.
Brookings Institution: Financing State and Local Pension Obligations: Issues and Options
Many states and municipalities are struggling to fund defined benefit pension plans for their employees. Between 2009 and 2013, in order to improve their pension status, almost every state implemented some combination of lower benefit accruals and higher employer or employee contributions. Numerous cities made changes as well for similar reasons.
Pew Research Center: The State Pension Funding Gap: 2015
The gap between the total assets reported by state pension systems across the United States and the benefits promised to workers, now reported as the net pension liability, reached $1.1 trillion in fiscal year 2015, the most recent year for which complete data are available. That represents an increase of $157 billion, or 17 percent, from 2014.
Urban Institute: The State of Retirement: Grading America’s Public Pension Plans
Our pension report card and interactive map grade state-administered retirement plans on their financing; how much retirement security they provide to short- and long-term employees; and the workforce incentives they create for younger, older, and mid-career employees.