After Detroit's bankruptcy, a nasty surprise surfaced from the wreckage: not just the city itself, but its retirees and would-be pensioners – from police officers to city clerks – would suffer, thanks to an unexpected pension fund shortage of some $3.5 billion.

A firm hired by the emergency manager of the city used a different method to calculate pension values than the one Detroit had used for years, turning what everyone believed was a surplus into a shocking deficit.

Now, a dispute is raging over which way is right, leaving school districts, municipalities, states and public employee groups to wonder whether they, too, are at risk. Trillions of dollars are at stake nationwide.

Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.

Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.