Pension funds

The popularity of cryptocurrency may drive investment by public pension funds.

Massive market returns coupled with rising contribution rates, led by worst-funded states like Illinois and New Jersey, boosted state retirement systems.

Melissa Norcia, appointed Tuesday, will begin her new duties on Sept. 15.

Most recently, he was a principal investment officer and head of global equity at the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association, or LACERA.

Illinois' single-employer pension plans are straining the budgets and ratings of those local governments without the tax base, flexiblity, and fiscal discipline to tackle rising costs, S&P says in a special report.

Chicago's net pension liabilities increased by $1.1 billion in 2020 to almost $33 billion.

The change represents a doubling of related investments, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Comptroller Scott Stringer announced.

Paul Gray, co-founder of IronHold Capital, links the unfunded liability problem to bad public policy decisions and bad hedge-fund actors. Paul Burton hosts (13 minutes).

The next phase of pension risk analysis will be different and more challenging: Assessing the long-term impacts of individual jurisdictions’ choices in the context of their unique workforce demographics, benefits and salary structure, and pension funding status.

Illinois' pension crater reaches more than $300 billion under Moody's formula.