Welcome to the latest edition of This Week in Pensions! As we do most weeks, 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.

This week the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy and the Keystone Research Center released a new report on public pensions in Kentucky. You can read the full report here and watch a recording of the press conference announcing the release of the report. The report generated significant attention from the Kentucky press. Here are a few of the stories about this critical new report:

Here are some of this week’s other top stories:

  • It Seems to Me: State retirement system should be left alone by Judy Foust: a retired teacher in Wisconsin speaks out against proposed changes to the Wisconsin Retirement System. These changes would negatively impact one of the strongest pension systems in the nation.
  • Funding for largest public pension plans inches up in quarter by Meaghan Kilroy: the aggregate funded status of public pension plans in the U.S. improved from the first quarter of 2017 to the second quarter. More and more public pension funds have seen double-digit investment returns this year as they continue to recover from severe losses during the Great Recession.
  • Public Sector Employees Prefer DB Plans to 401(k)s by Lee Barney: a new report from the National Institute on Retirement Security finds that when given a choice, public employees overwhelmingly choose pensions over 401(k)-style plans.
  • Republicans, stop trying to ‘fix’ IPERS! by Anne Michael: as Republican legislators in Iowa consider possible changes to the Iowa Public Employees Retirement System, Michael writes: “…IPERS does not need to be fixed. It has been very healthy for 30 years. It has averaged an annual return rate of 8.83 percent above the 7.5 percent that was the assumed rate of growth.”

Be sure to check back next week for the latest news in the fight for a secure retirement!