clifp
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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- Oct 27, 2006
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Today's Washington Post has a great article that everybody with state or local pension should read (and most of you taxpayer also). Steep Losses Pose Crisis for Pensions
A couple of interesting data points.
The other thing that struck me is this section. At a time when the board consensus thought a 8% return wasn't safe Our pension plan administrators were basing future returns on this number.
I have to say in the upcoming war between higher taxes and lower benefit for public employees, while I am rooting against tax increases, I see no winners.
A couple of interesting data points.
The upheaval on Wall Street has deluged public pension systems with losses that government officials and consultants increasingly say are insurmountable unless pension managers fundamentally rethink how they pay out benefits or make money or both.
Within 15 years, public systems on average will have less half the money they need to pay pension benefits, according to an analysis by Pricewaterhouse Coopers. Other analysts say funding levels could hit that low within a decade.
The other thing that struck me is this section. At a time when the board consensus thought a 8% return wasn't safe Our pension plan administrators were basing future returns on this number.
From there, the deficit will grow even wider, according to Kim Nicholl, the national director of PricewaterhouseCoopers public sector retirement practice. Even if public pension funds were to hit their 8 percent investment targets every year, Nicholl calculated they would have less than half of what they need by 2025. This is because a greater share of the population will be retired and those who are will live longer, thus collecting benefits longer, she said.
I have to say in the upcoming war between higher taxes and lower benefit for public employees, while I am rooting against tax increases, I see no winners.