Reports on Public Pension Plans

  • Federal Employee Participation Patterns in the Thrift Savings Plan Calendar Year 2007 (Office of Personnal Management, April 2010). The United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) analyzed participation in the Thrift Saving Plan (TSP) to identify employee participation rates and determine if the data suggests possible actions to be taken to improve the methods by which we educate Federal employees so they will be better able to plan for retirement.
  • The Funding of State and Local Pensions: 2009-2013 (Center for Retirement Research, April 2010). This brief reports state and local pension funding levels for fiscal 2009, a year for which stock market performance is known and for which actuarial valuations are available for roughly half of the 126 plans in our sample. It also reports projections for 2010-2013 under alternative assumptions about the performance of the stock market.
  • Look Before You Leap: The Unintended Consequences of Pension Freezes (National Institute on Retirement Security, October 2008). With the economy becoming weaker, many state and local governments will be facing fiscal challenges in the months and years ahead. These challenges will undoubtedly prompt governments to carefully examine all aspects of their budgets, including pension costs for state and local workforces. This brief explores important factors public employers should keep in mind when making decisions about their retirement programs.
  • Why Does Funding Status Vary Among State and Local Plans? (Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, May 2008). While state and local pensions as a group are about as well funded as plans in the private sector, significant variation exists. This brief aims to sort out why some plans are less well funded than others.
  • The Miracle of Funding by State and Local Pension Plans (Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, April 2008). This brief examines three aspects of the funding of state and local pension plans — the regulatory environment under which they operate, their costs and funding requirements, and their current funding status.
  • What Do We Know About the Universe of State and Local Plans? (Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, March 2008). This brief describes the population of public pension plans, reports on the investment performance of different types of public plans, and compares the investment performance of public and private plans.
  • Why Have Some States Introduced Defined Contribution Plans? (Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, January 2008). Although defined benefit plans dominate the state and local sector, in the last decade twelve states have introduced some form of defined contribution plan. This brief describes this flurry of defined contribution activity, presents data on participation and assets to put the flurry into perspective, and identifies the factors that led to the changes occurring in the states where they did.

Click the links below to read reports on the following topics:

General Pension Reports
Defined Benefit vs. Defined Contribution Plans
Defined Benefit Plans
Defined Contribution Plans
Pension Plan Freezes, Changes, and Trends
Wealth, Savings and Retirement Reports
Women's Retirement Security
Polls Related to Retirement Security
Public Pension Plans