Len Girlroy has devoted his career to the Public Pension Fund World and to ensuring their longevity. As Vice President at the Reason Foundation Len’s mission is to ensure that public pension funds remain healthy and robust. Are you part of an underfunded pension fund? If so Len Gilroy is someone with thoughtful answers and ways to help reform your fund. Len has testified before Congress and written for numerous publications including a recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. Len and his foundation were at the forefront of the recent reform undertaken on behalf of Texas ERS. Len assisted policymakers and other stakeholders in designing, analyzing, and implementing public sector pension reforms to promote solvent and sustainable retirement systems that provide security for government workers while reducing taxpayer and pension system exposure to financial risks. Len also devotes himself to working with legislators and officials to design and implement market-based policy approaches, improve government performance, enhance accountability in government programs and reduce government spending. Public Pension Plans need to take notice and to know that with Len on your side, employer and employee are on the same team!
Show Notes:
1:14 – Len talks about how he is tackling concerns about public pension funds
- The Pension Integrity Project has been engaged in research on a number of policy issues including a wide range of tax and fiscal issues
- A decade ago, they started to notice whats is happening in public pension space in the U.S. and what they saw was a rampant underfunding
- The total aggregate unfunded across all U.S state local government was about $500 billion
- Underperforming investments are typically one of the biggest factors impacting a pension system,but when you layer it in a public pension space, they tend to favor very long amortization periods for unfunded liabilities
10:45 – How states have different problems when it comes to public pension funds
- Systematic underfunding differers on various states
- One example is Texas where they are correcting underfunding by passing a new reform for their new hires moving into a “Cash Balance Plan”.
- The subtleties in design are the keys to making a resilient system
14:16 – Will restructuring affect the public workforce and the quality of the workforce?
- The workforce has shifted over time, just as you see in survey data and observation.
- The current generation entering the workforce are more mobile.
- Sadly, the younger generations today are not talking about pension.
- You don’t go to the public sector to get a pension anymore, but because you want to become a public servant
- A government today if your going to get into a traditional like work 25 year to get full pension, arguably that is a poor way to serve probably 80% of your workforce
- It’s a complicated technical stuff, but to get there, you must craft through people’s fear and emotional energy about retirement
- The principles of pension reform is make sure that you live up to the promises you offer
- When you have an unchecked public pension underfunding problem, you have to pay it down; and if goes unchecked and assume that it’s all work but it doesn’t, it starts to crowd out money
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About The Author
As a securities class action attorney, my goal is to assist you in maximizing claim recoveries related to your investment portfolio, including direct claims, class action claims, class action settlement claims, derivative claims, tax recovery claims, and where appropriate to pursue whistleblower claims and more that help to protect the integrity of the securities markets. My podcast provides the legal and investment community to which my private investor, public fund, and union fund clients belong, with up-to date- information relevant to their investment portfolios. I want to assure my clients that while we may not have seen one another in person these past months, I have been working diligently on your behalf to continue to provide our practice leading services while maintaining my high level of personal attention that I believe is essential to an authentic and long lasting relationship with my clients.
For more information on ways to join cases and to increase your investment portfolio recoveries read my blogs and listen to my Pensions and Investments podcast. Providing information and creative ways to ensure my clients recover all monies due to them in the simplest ways is my overarching goal.
Atara Twersky, is of counsel at AF&T. Atara is also the bestselling author of the children’s book series, Curlee Girlee, inspired by her own young curly haired daughter and written for all curly girls in an effort to ensure they love themselves and their hair exactly as it is, understanding that their hair is part of a greater legacy they share with those who came before them. You can find out more about Atara here. Listen to other podcast episodes Pensions and Investments podcast with Atara Twersky here or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!