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The vendor helps CalPERS identify member deaths and make sure that correct payments go to retirees and their beneficiaries.. The personal information of about 769,000 retired CalPERS members was exposed in a third-party data breach that was reported earlier this month. CalSTRS also said it was impacted by the breach and KCRA 3 is trying to learn how many of its members were impacted. CalPERS, the California Public Employees' Retirement System, is the nation's largest public pension fund. It serves more than 2 million members in its retirement system and more than 1.5 million in its health program. CalSTRS, the...

The official estimate of the deficit for Oregon's public pension system climbed by $2.4 billion Friday. As a result, state and local agencies and school districts face even higher pension costs over the next two decades than they had earlier expected. And the new deficit figure continues to fuel controversy over what the governor and state Legislature should do to ease those rate increases. The new debt figure is the result of a unanimous vote by the board that oversees the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System. They chose Friday to reduce an estimate of how much PERS expects to earn...

Here’s a loaded question for you: “What could go wrong?”   In some contexts, it can express mistaken confidence, as in, “Sure I’ll put my hand between that crocodile’s jaws. What could go wrong?” Investors should ask the same question before entering a position. “What risks am I taking with this trade? What could go wrong if it doesn’t go as planned?” But here’s the problem: What if you never think to ask the question because you have no idea you’re in that trade? And guess what—this is your problem if you are a taxpayer anywhere in the US. Photo:...

Earlier today the Kersten Institute for Governance and Public Policy highlighted an updated pension study, released by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, which revealed some fairly startling realities about California's public pension underfunding levels. After averaging $77,700 per household in 2014, the amount of public pension underfunding for the state of California jumped to a staggering $92,748 per household in 2015. But don't worry, we're sure pension managers can grow their way out of the problem...hedge fund returns have been stellar recently, right? Stanford University’s pension tracker database pegs the market value of California’s total pension debt at...

the public pension debt for the 50 states and the District of Columbia jumped 84 percent in recent years, from $2.625 trillion in 2008 to $4.833 trillion in 2014. ... The highest pension debt/household is in Alaska, with an estimated $113,137 figure; Illinois and California are in the second and third highest rankings at more than $77,000 per household.” The lowest state pension debt per household is in Tennessee at $17,761. Illinois has the lowest “market funded ratio” (value of pension assets divided by market liability), at 23.3 percent. The other 49 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. have a market...

When Detroit went bankrupt in 2013, investors were shocked to learn that the city had promised pensions worth billions more than anyone knew — creating a financial pileup that ultimately meant big, unexpected losses for Detroit’s bondholders. Now, researchers at Citigroup say the groundwork has been laid for similar conflicts across the developed world: Governments have promised much more than they can most likely pay to current and future retirees, without revealing the disparity to investors who bought government bonds and whose investments could be at risk. Twenty countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have promised their...

Although the vast majority of public employees are covered by defined-benefit pension plans, many may need to supplement their pension checks to ensure a comfortable retirement. Teachers, for example, can enhance their retirement security by contributing to a 403(b) plan, a tax-deferred savings plan that's similar to a 401(k). Unfortunately, many 403(b) plans are vastly inferior to their private-sector counterparts as far as investment choices are concerned; primary offerings are usually products such as equity-indexed annuities, which often carry high fees and offer limited market returns

the 25 biggest systems by assets averaged a 7.45% return from 2004 to 2013, but liabilities tripled over the same period leaving them facing a $2 trillion shortfall as investment returns can’t keep up with ballooning obligations. The top 25 funds account for 40% of the entire US public pension system with Illinois, Kentucky, Connecticut, and Louisiana at the top of the 'most underfunded' list. .... the New York-based credit rater’s calculation of liabilities tripled in the eight years through 2012, ... liabilities are crowding out spending for services, roads and schools.

Did we all get suckered last week by the governor's office and the state Legislature on pension "reform"? Within a 72-hour period, Gov. Jerry Brown released sketchy details, the 60-page bill was posted on the Internet, a committee hearing was held and the Legislature approved it. We scrambled to decipher the highly technical and complex language. The Legislature and governor's office put out summaries that were incomplete and misleading. Outside experts had no opportunity for input. It was an outrageous charade. A missing word here, an added clause there -- it didn't take much to change the meaning and effect....

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said this week that public pension reform legislation is still on track for this year, although he wasn't sure about the timing.

One of the biggest mysteries at the Capitol these days is whether lawmakers are really going to make any substantive changes in the pension system for public employees. This week didn't do much to answer that, even though there were hearings on bills that were taken word-for-word from proposals Gov. Jerry Brown had sent to the Legislature. The apparent problem? Republicans introduced the bills. They deal with a host of issues, but the two most contentious are increasing the retirement age and creating some kind of hybrid system that includes a traditional pension plus a 401(k)-style plan. Republicans were ready...

The average California household's share of the debt for underfunded state and local government employee pensions comes to about $30,500. Stanford University studies released last week and in December for the first time aggregate public pension shortfalls statewide. Using moderate assumptions about future investment returns, the unfunded liability is about $379 billion. Hard-core pension reformers will maintain that the number is much more. Defenders of the status quo will insist it's significantly less. Before sorting out that dispute, let's understand what the numbers mean. Each year public employees work, they increase their future pensions. So, as they work, they and...

Contra Costa County's finances resemble those of a family that ran up astronomical credit card debts by spending beyond its means. It's not a unique story. Local governments throughout the East Bay face similar problems. Contra Costa leaders deserve credit for starting to adjust their spending about five years ago, earlier than many other public agencies. They began trimming employee salaries, reducing benefits and significantly cutting the size of the workforce. These were painful, but essential, cuts critical to bringing annual expenses in line with income. For next fiscal year, county officials feel confident they have a balanced budget that...

Caltrans' recent decision to "unfire" an employee who admitted falsifying structural tests and let him retire may leave you wondering, How hard is it to fire a state worker? So let's take the aforementioned Duane Wiles. The state Transportation Department fired him in November after The Bee's Charles Piller started asking questions about Wiles' job performance in testing the new Bay Bridge span and other projects. As was his right, Wiles appealed his termination to the State Personnel Board. Caltrans and Wiles settled on an agreement that scrubbed the termination from his file and let him retire. In return, Wiles...

California's three largest pension systems have promised $500 billion beyond their current ability to make those payments to retirees, according to a study released to today by Stanford University Professor and former Democratic Assemblyman Joe Nation and a student researcher. The Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research issued the report, documenting what it claims is the state's deepening pension crisis. California Common Sense, an organization dedicated to engaging the public in "data-driven discourse" is also behind the report. Among the report's findings for CalPERS, CalSTRS and the University of California Retirement Plan: Using a "risk-free" or low-risk discount rate --...

Whenever I'm driving around with the kids and we happen to pass a firefighter washing his prized engine, which looks like it was washed the day before, outside the station, I tend to slow down or even pull over and have the kids marvel at this heroic public servant for a minute. "Kids,"I say, "that guy probably became a firefighter at 22 and by the time he's 52, he's going to collect a pension of about $80K per year for the next 35 years." "Wow," the kids say, and I like to think they're being sincere. "Timmy (not his real...

The State of Illinois has the most underfunded public pension plans in the nation, with a funding gap that is now approaching $50 billion. The low balances in the state's pension accounts have been made worse by the stock market crash, which has also hit Chicago's and Cook County's employee pension plans. Here's a look at the dire situation for the retirement plans of state workers ranging from police to judges to university professors to members of the Illinois General Assembly. All are counting on generous state pensions, but may soon wake up to a brutal reality. A financial war...

By firing its actuarial consultant last week, the New York State Legislature shone a light on one of the public sector’s deepest secrets: All across the country, states and local governments are promising benefits to public workers on the basis of numbers that make little economic sense. The numbers are off-base for a variety of reasons. Sometimes there is a glaring conflict of interest, as there was in Albany, where the consultant was being paid by the workers seeking richer benefits. More often, there is subtle pressure on the actuary to come up with projections that make the pension fund...

New commission has its work cut out for it Faced with a politically intractable problem, elected officials invariably turn to blue ribbon commissions -- panels of distinguished citizens they hope will come up with palatable solutions.Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed such a commission early in his first term to deal with the state's burgeoning prison crisis, to little or no avail. The panel made sound recommendations, which the governor ignored, and the prison crisis has deepened.Now the governor, together with legislative leaders, has created a new commission, this one to deal with another intractable state problem: the soaring cost of retiree...

California has repeatedly given new and improved retirement benefits to public employees. The question now has become what, if anything, it can take back. While the state has wide latitude in scaling back pension benefits for new workers, experts say, it faces far stricter limitations when it comes to current employees. Even some of the measures proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, which stop short of altering the basic pension formula in favor of steps such as encouraging workers to leave the retirement system, could trigger a legal challenge. California case law makes it clear that any changes to the pension...