Why are public pension plans so poorly funded? Sure, you can blame politicians’ meddling, or irresponsible benefit increases, or decisions to take contribution holidays, but, to take the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund as a case study, it was not designed to be funded in the first place.
The number of Texas state and local pension funds achieving Pension Review Board recommendations for overall financial health hit a new high in 2019, according to PRB data analyzed by the Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems. In addition, for the first time in decades, no Texas pension fund has a target rate greater than 8 percent.
Year-end incentive payments are expected to drop modestly from last year in most business areas on Wall Street, according to an analysis by compensation consulting firm Johnson Associates.
Over the past five years, 642 public safety pension funds in the suburbs and downstate have received more than $3.2 billion in investment returns. However, those funds were expected to generate at least $4.1 billion from investments, a nearly $1 billion miss.