Welcome to the latest edition of This Week in Pensions! As we do each week, we have gathered the best stories about pensions and retirement security from the previous week. This is the news you need to know in the fight for a secure retirement.
Here are this week’s top stories:
- Strong Public Pension Systems: North Carolina’s Unlikely Claim To Fame by Tyler Bond: writing on The Huffington Post, NPPC’s Tyler Bond applauds North Carolina for its robust, well-funded, and well-managed public pension systems. These strong public pension systems offer a roadmap to success for other public pensions around the country.
- One pension plan that looks pretty good by Bill Smith: the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund is a strong, successful public pension system in a state not known for having well-funded pensions. We also wrote about the IMRF in our report released last week.
- State pension funds earn median 6.8% over 10 years, analysis finds by Christine Williamson: an analysis by Cliffwater LLC found that public pension funds earned a median return of 6.8 percent over a ten year period that included the Great Recession. As the report says: “States overall have been successful stewards of pension assets over our 10-year study period, achieving returns that captured the opportunities presented by global markets and then some.”
- California governor signs alternatives investments fee disclosure bill by Arleen Jacobius: California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill this week that requires California’s public pension funds to disclose the fees they pay to Wall Street firms that manage alternative investments on behalf of the pension systems. This continues a trend of states requiring pension funds to disclose the often high fees they pay to Wall Street firms.
Also this week the National Institute on Retirement Security released their Pensionomics 2016 report. They have factsheets available for all 50 states and DC showing the valuable economic impact public pensions have.
Be sure to check back next week for the latest news in the fight for a secure retirement!
