Fornia Authors Disclosure and Funding Articles for NCPERS and Illinois CGFA

TheThe National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS) and the Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (CGFA) requested that PTA president Flick Fornia contribute to recent member newsletters. The NCPERS article entitled "Disclosure, Disclosure, Disclosure" covered the implications of recent public pension disclosure initiatives from GASB, PEPTA, and NABL, and explained the main components of disclosure in the context of changes to each set of standards. For the
CGFA Monthly Briefing, Fornia wrote a guest editorial on actuarially accepted funding methods for public pension funds.

More information:
NCPERS Newsletter, PERSist Winter 2012
CGFA Monthly Briefing, February 2012

NYC Comptroller Issues NIRS/PTA Report

The New York City Comptroller has released a report on a study conducted by Pension Trustee Advisors (PTA) and the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS), "A Better Bang for New York City's Buck." The analysis finds that the New York City defined benefit pension plans can deliver the same level of retirement income at nearly a 40% lower cost than a defined contribution 401(k)-type individual account, and that defined benefit savings come from three sources: superior investment returns, better management of longevity risk, and portfolio diversification. The study was based on the paper, "A Better Bang for the Buck: The Economic Efficiencies of Defined Benefit Pension Plans," co-authored by Flick Fornia and Beth Almeida and published by NIRS in 2008.

More information:
NIRS Press Release
Report: A Better Bang for New York City's Buck
Almeida/Fornia Paper

PTA Active in Explaining GASB Implications

As President of Pension Trustee Advisors and Vice Chairman of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries (CCA) Steering Committee on Public Plans, Flick Fornia is active in consulting on the impact of the recent pension disclosure ruling by the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB). Fornia testifies to GASB on October 21, 2011, on the CCA response to the proposals, and has been educating industry organizations on the GASB exposure draft and its implications. Fornia has developed webcast presentations to the National Council on Teacher Retirement (NCTR) and the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS) to shed light on pending changes

More information:
GASB Exposure Draft: Accounting and Financial Reporting for Pensions
PTA Response to GASB

CCA Response to GASB
NCTR Webcast presentation
NIRS Webcast presentation

Fornia Participates in NABL Task Force on DB Plan Disclosure

Flick Fornia was invited to join the National Association of Bond Lawyers (NABL) municipal market's Task Force on Defined Benefit Public Pension Plan Disclosure. Fornia participated in the Task Force's two meetings, May 2 and August 24, 2011, and will be participating again October 25 in Washington. The NABL Task Force focus has been on the Discussion Draft entitled "Considerations in Preparing Disclosure for Public Defined Benefit Pension Plan in Official Statements." As reported on the NABL Website, "...the Draft serves as guidance to counsel in addressing certain issues... includ[ing] the impact of annual contributions on current and future budgets of the issuer; any plans the issuer has adopted to address future payments; and any statutory provisions or positions of the executive or legislative branches regarding priorities of funding of debt service, contractual obligations, current payroll, and current pension payments."

More information:
NABL Website article
Conference of Consulting Actuaries

Fornia to Speak at the PPI 2011 Asian Pension Fund Roundtable

For the second year in a row, Flick Fornia was invited by the Pacific Pension Institute to
speak at the Asian Pension Fund Roundtable, most recently held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on November 10-11, 2011. The conference theme was Global Rebalancing: Investing When Change is Fundamental, with a "focus on factors of fundamental change and their implications for the global economy and institutional investors: 1) Demographics in Asian emerging markets; 2) Global economic and financial systems rebalancing; 3) Outlook and potential realignment of currency markets worldwide."

More information:
PPI Malasia conference info
PPI Website

PTA Leads Workshop for Fort Worth Employees Retirement Fund

PTA led Fort Worth City Council and Fort Worth Employees’ Retirement Fund in a three hour workshop at their Joint Pension Committee on October 18, 2011. PTA President Flick Fornia, working with consulting actuary Paul Schrader guided the Joint Pension Committee through a discussion of pension objectives in terms of benefit needs and financing needs. Fort Worth, like many cities and public pension funds, is under financial constraints and increased public scrutiny. PTA is assisting the City and Fund in working together to
establish common retirement objectives and metrics.”

More information:
A recent article on the meeting from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Fornia Paper Cited in Senate Testimony

Recent testimony before the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions frequently cited a paper co-authored by Flick Fornia and Beth Almeida . The Senate hearings on July 12, 2011, entitled "The Power of Pensions: Building a Strong Middle Class and Strong Economy" included expert witness Diane Oakley, Executive Director, National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS). Ms. Oakley's testimony included several highlights of the paper,
"A Better Bang for the Buck: The Economic Efficiencies of Defined Benefit Pension Plans"
written by Almeida and Fornia and published by NIRS in 2008.

More information:
US Senate Committee Hearing July 12, 2011
Ms. Oakley's testimony
Press Release on NIRS Senate testimony
Almeida/Fornia Paper

Fornia Presents at Fiduciary Responsibility Panel

Flick Fornia presented to a group of primarily attorneys at the American Conference Institute's National Summit on the Future of Fiduciary Responsibility at the Millennium UN Plaza in New York City on June 10, 2011. He was on a panel on "The State of the Public Pension System" with five pension trustees and attorneys. Fornia stressed the importance of pension plan sponsors contributing their actuarially calculated contributions in a consistent and diligent manner.

More information:
Future of Fiduciary Responsibility Summit

PTA Featured in Global Business Magazine

An article by Pension Trustee Advisors president Flick Fornia was published in the July 2011 issue of Global Business Magazine (GBM). The worldwide online and print magazine featured the piece entitled "The State of Public Pensions in the US."

Global Business Magazine article, July 2011

Norman Ruggles Named CEO of San Bernardino CERA

Norm Ruggles has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of the San Bernardino County Employees' Retirement Association, and will be leaving his position as vice president of trustee education at Pension Trustee Advisors. Ruggles takes the helm of the $5.5 billion, 32,000-member SBCERA after serving several important PTA clients including Alaska Public Pension Coalition, National Institute on Retirement Security / New York City Office of the Comptroller, Puerto Rico Employees Retirement System, and Atlanta Professional Fire Fighters. He has also been instrumental in the development of the PTA subscription trustee training video program, due to launch this summer.

"This is a tremendous opportunity for Norm and he will serve San Bernardino very well," said Flick Fornia, President of PTA. "I've appreciated the contributions Norm has made to Pension Trustee Advisors. We will miss him and wish him the best with his new responsibilities."

Ruggles' appointment was effective July 6.

Fornia Speaks at University of Wisconsin School of Business Pension Conference

Flick Fornia spoke at the University of Wisconsin School of Business conference “U.S. Retirement Savings: Looking for A Better Way” held in Madison on June 2, 2011. The presentation was on “Rethinking Pension Plan Design.”

The PTA presentation:

Rethinking Pension Design

More information about the conference:
Madison Pension Conference

CFA Society of Madison conference link

Fornia Co-authors Comments to Congress on PEPTA

The steering committee of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries’ Public Plans Community sent comments to Congress opposing the Public Employee Pension Transparency Act. Flick Fornia was one of the principal authors and leaders of the document that raised major concerns about the proposed legislation. These include:

1. The PEPTA/MVL approach does not reflect the ongoing cost of the pension plan to taxpayers and employees but instead would only reflect a hypothetical market price
   at which the accrued benefits might be sold.
2. The PEPTA/MVL approach would not be useful for measuring the plan’s funded status.
3. The PEPTA/MVL approach would not improve the transparency of plan reporting.
4. The PEPTA/MVL approach focuses on a theoretical “value” of the benefits rather than on the actual cost to the taxpayers.
5. PEPTA circumvents state and local government authority and undermines the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) in the setting of accounting and financial reporting standards for state and local governments.
6. At a time when governments are under enormous fiscal pressure, PEPTA would require unnecessarily higher expenditures on the part of the federal, state, and local governments.

CCA PPC Comments to Congress

More on PEPTA:

NASRA House Judiciary Subcommittee Testimony
NCPERS House Ways & Means Subcommittee Testimony

Fornia Leads Workshop on Public Employee Retirement Systems at Enrolled Actuaries Meeting

With Larry Johansen from New Hampshire Retirement System, about 50 leading actuaries discussed the leading issues pertaining to public pensions at the annual Enrolled Actuaries Meeting in Washington DC in March.

The presentation (Session #806):

PERS Workshop

More on the Enrolled Actuaries Meeting:

The Enrolled Actuaries Meeting

For a controversial take on the conference from a watchdog.org reporter, see:

PTA Testifies Before Atlanta City Council

For a video of the hearing, see:

Atlanta City Council meeting April 20, 2011 (part 1)
-- from minute 35:00 to the end; resuming with the next video:

Atlanta City Council meeting April 20, 2011 (part 2)
-- from the beginning to minute 6:00, and again for Q&A from approximately 1:16:00 to 1:39:00.