State Sponsored Plans
The states may serve as laboratories and “try novel social and economic experiments,” wrote U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, and a recent NTSA webcast addressed how they do that regarding retirement systems. In “Public Pensions in Flux? A Review of State Retirement System and Alternatives...
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Washington has been training its eye on fees and transparency for years now. But so is the industry. The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) is the latest organization to convene a group trying to make sure broker-dealers are giving investors fee disclosures they can...
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It’s only September, but the end of the 2014 plan year is fast approaching. That means more than compiling data for information reporting and preparing for the 2015 plan year — it also means providing notices to defined contribution plan participants before New Year’s Eve. Prudential outlines the...
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The Garden State is the latest state whose credit rating has suffered due to a pension funding shortfall. Credit agencies have downgraded their ratings of New Jersey debt due to the state’s worsening pension funding ratio.CIO.com reports that Fitch has downgraded New Jersey’s municipal bonds from A...
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The California Controller’s office soon will make information about the state’s approximately 130 public pension systems available on a new website. California Controller John Chiang on Sept. 8 unveiled the site, which provides a wide range of data on city and county finances. The new site...
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The California Controller’s office soon will make information about the state’s approximately 130 public pension systems available on a new website. California Controller John Chiang on Sept. 8 unveiled the site, which provides a wide range of data on city and county finances. The new site...
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The Rhode Island Democratic primary is being touted as more than a way to choose the party’s 2014 gubernatorial candidate — in a sense, reforming the state’s pension system is on the ballot as well. Rhode Island Treasurer Gina Raimondo, who is running for governor, implemented the reform in 2011....
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The degree of fiduciary responsibility for non-ERISA plans, such as those sponsored by public education and religious organizations, continue to generate many questions from plan sponsors and the advisors that serve them. In this week’s MarketBeat, Mike Webb argues that this is understandable, and...
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The Land of Lincoln has earned a dubious distinction, according to a new report by Moody’s: It is without peer in how its state pension liability compares to its revenue. Moody’s says that Illinois’ pension debt amounts to a whopping 318% of its revenue in 2012. Its three-year average for the...
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The Federal Reserve’s 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) shows mixed results concerning 403(b) plans. The SCF finds that overall, while retirement plan participation remained relatively flat over the past three years, the median and average value of those retirement plan accounts rose “...
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Prospects for state and local employees’ financial security in retirement are better than that of their private-sector counterparts, according to a new paper from the National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators (NAGDCA). Nonetheless, the paper argues, steps still...
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Public school employees can contribute to a 403(b) plan, or to a 457(b) plan. Sounds great, but doing so can have negative ramifications. In this week’s MarketBeat, David Blask notes that these plans differ in several important ways and observes that the determination regarding which plan is...
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There is great variation among the states regarding their ability to meet their obligations to current and future retirees from their state and local work forces. The U.S. Census Bureau in its recently released 2013 Survey of Public Pensions: State-Administered Defined Benefit Data highlights...
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There is great variation among the states regarding their ability to meet their obligations to current and future retirees from their state and local work forces. The U.S. Census Bureau in its recently released 2013 Survey of Public Pensions: State-Administered Defined Benefit Data highlights...
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With the official report not due until September, a draft report released by the Oregon legislature's Task Force on Oregon Retirement Savings offers a blueprint of a proposed new mandatory auto IRA program for the state. According to a report in the Oregon Statesman-Journal, the proposal calls...
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Gov. Chris Christie (R) seems to have read the tea leaves correctly in setting up a commission to make recommendations on how to reform New Jersey’s public pension system. And that’s not just regarding the needs of the system — it also appears to be prescient regarding the views of his...
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Detroit may well be the poster child for municipal pension irresponsibility (though if there were an award for that, it would be extremely competitive). But give credit where it’s due: the Motor City has also been a model for how to dig out of the public pension hole. Kevyn Orr, the city’s...
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Are graft and fraud the next big thing for state pension plans? An industry segment already beset by massive underfunding, bankruptcy court proceedings and other litigation, politics and pension envy doesn’t need any more bad news. But that may be exactly what it gets. The former chief executive...
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On July 9, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) signed into law a measure that makes it illegal to transfer or assign public pension benefits. The Show-Me State is the first to enact such legislation. The new law arose, at least in part, in response to the practice of third parties providing a cash...
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NTSA is always busy working on your behalf and that of those whom you serve. Following is a look at what’s been going on in selected states, as well as NTSA’s assessment and what action we are taking. Pennsylvania Both the House of Representatives and Senate are in recess until Sept. 15. Before...
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