Bob Buerkle: A hard question and a prediction for STRS

From Bob Buerkle

April 20, 2021

What follows my two paragraphs and my picture below are the first two paragraphs of an NCPERS article. Just so our readers know, STRS belongs to this organization. 

My question is this: Since STRS was already at 77% funded before the pandemic, can we expect that our current "Funded Ratio" will also improve by the same national average increase of 16% this fiscal year? If that were true STRS would soon be 93% funded! 

What will STRS Management tell us next? I suspect they will try to complete their self-fulfilling prophecy by recommending that the "Investment Return Assumption" rate be lowered again, which will add billions of more phantom debt, alter the true picture of our significantly improved funding progress, keep teachers working longer and charging them more for lesser benefits and finally, tell retirees that a COLA is still not affordable.

Bob Buerkle

Market Surge Boosts State Pension Funds

By Lou Cannon - RCP Contributor

April 18, 2021

Rebounding from a 30-year low in March 2020, state pension plans have survived the pandemic, thanks to the soaring stock market.

CalPERS, the nation’s largest public pension plan, posted a 12.4% return for the 2020 calendar year. Overall, U.S. state pension plans reached an aggregate funded ratio of 78.6% in December, a leap of 16 percentage points from the 30-year low of 62.6% in March 2020, according to Wilshire Consulting, an investment research provider.

Read the rest of the article here.