Annual Meeting Public Plan Sessions

Public sector consulting is called public for a reason! Our work product and consulting advice is presented in public meetings in publicly accessible documents. This means our work may be challenged in high pressure forums that require professional and resolute responses. This session will explore real-world situations that involve such adversarial conditions as well as control of work product issues. Bring your favorite war stories and questions for discussion.

In today’s ever-evolving financial landscape, pension plans are increasingly turning to alternative assets to enhance returns, manage risk, and diversify their portfolio. This session will explore the variety of investments such as private equity, real estate, hedge funds, infrastructure, private debt, and crypto, including how to evaluate them and the investment return assumptions.

Las Vegas - the city of risk and reward! That’s a perfect setting for a discussion on sharing risk in public pension plans. After hearing about DB and DC combinations last year, we continue our risk sharing series by hearing from administrators of plans with variable employee contributions and learn about sharing risk with plan members.

Following the Great Recession, many public pension systems implemented significant pension reforms – closing defined benefit (DB) plans to new hires, creating reduced benefit tiers, or suspending COLAs. In recent years, a surprisingly counter trend has emerged: A number of these reforms are being partially or fully reversed. This session will examine real-world case studies of DB plan re-openings, tier restorations, and COLA reinstatements. We will explore the workforce, fiscal, and political dynamics driving these reversals, and the lessons they offer for designing sustainable, resilient pensions. Attendees will gain deep insight into how workforce effects fiscal policy and stakeholder engagement can make or break pension reform.

Most public plans have spent the last 20 years strengthening assumptions, increasing contribution rates, and managing benefit levels. As funding progresses, it’s important to look beyond the basic tenants of the CCA White Paper to wholistically prepare for what’s to come. This session will dive into tail-end volatility management of layered amortization, proactive surplus management policies, and related output smoothing techniques.

The CCA Public Plans Community meets to discuss current issues, outlooks, and news. Neither CCA nor community membership is required to attend.

With the pandemic behind us, what new trends have emerged in Experience Studies and how much credibility should we give them. Panelists explore the following questions: Have mortality rates have returned to normal or is there a new normal? Has remote work redefined your turnover or retirement rates? Has higher inflation impacted your pay increase assumption? Come hear from a panel of experts and be prepared to share any new trends that you have seen.

Come share your thoughts as public pension/OPEB actuaries discuss challenges, concerns, and/or perceived solutions to hot topics affecting public plans across the US. Be prepared to participate in polling as well as group discussion.