It's easy for clients to think the "public pension time bomb" story is happening far away and won't affect them. But in your own community, there are local versions of this story you can use to emphasize its potential impact on clients' planning.

For example: The U.S. Post Office's recent decision to cut Saturday mail service delivery was driven by pension-funding pressure. In December, millions of muni bond investors felt a tremor when Moody's downgraded Puerto Rico's GO debt to the lowest investment-grade rating (Baa3) with negative outlook. Puerto Rico's government pension plans have unfunded liabilities of $37.3 billion.

Although Virginia is one of 13 states with a triple-A credit rating, it doesn't lack local "pension time bomb" stories. Recently, a Richmond Times Dispatch editorial highlighted the cost to residents of Henrico County, a Richmond suburb: "New accounting standards that will go effect in 2014 mean localities will have to assume the entire burden of teacher pension liabilities. For Henrico, that puts another half-billion dollars on the debt side of the ledger." The editorial compared this debt, per capita on a local scale, with the cost of filling far larger shortfalls at the Post Office.