The Pension Board met on Wednesday Sept. 17th. Our system is still doing very well, with total assets of $2.235 Billion. As previously reported, the actuarial report as of July 1, 2014 shows our funding ratio at 94.6%. We are estimated to go over 100% during calendar year 2016, assuming no significant negative market events. Our Actuary said this was the first time in his career that he was able to tell a Public Pension System that they would be at a 100% funded ratio. The past 12 months has yielded a result of 14.09%, net of fees.
As of July 1, 2014 the system had 4557 active members and 3320 receiving benefits statewide. All of the financial statements can be found on the web site.
There are some new reporting changes going into effect this year. The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), published GASB Statement 67. GASB 67 does not allow for ‘smoothing’ of assets and starting with fiscal years ending June 30, 2014 requires the net payables, positive or negative, to be reported proportionally to the members employer. This caused a lot of concern in Oklahoma because the seven state public pension systems are legally backed by the state and not the employer. The employers are concerned because carrying this proportional deficit on a balance sheet could affect bond ratings, even though this money is not really owed from the employer.
However…the good news for us is using GASB 67 the Police Pension fund is at 101.53% funded rate. So for this year the proportional amount reported to the employers from OPPRS will be positive.
So far the board is aware of two interim studies being conducted by the legislators on public pensions. The Senate is number 14-041 and the House is number 14-005. We will attend the meetings and monitor them for any potential affect they may have on our pension.
All agendas and minutes can be found on the web site. As always, please contact me if you have any questions.
Jeff Pierce
State Trustee,
District 6
Oklahoma Police Pension & Retirement System