Defined Benefits

State Treasurer Janet Cowell, who is one of the few public pension administrators empowered to act as sole fiduciary, reported that the fund ended last year with $86 billion in assets, a rise of $8 billion for the year.

A study concluded that cutting pension benefits would hit women and African Americans in disproportionate numbers and send negative economic ripples throughout the communities where they live.

Women are much more likely than men not to have planned how they will use these assets, according to a study by LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute.

The board of the $282.5 billion fund voted yesterday to boost the states annual allocation to $5 billion over three years, from $3.8 billion now. Local government increases were postponed for two years.

Thee Los Angeles Unified School District, the nations largest outside New York City, owes so much for retiree health care that paying off its debt would cost $17,500 for each student

Just 6 percent of the 114 Fortune 500 multinational companies said they want to continue their defined benefits plans.

Improvements were designed to make it even easier for users to find a plan and highlight the most important plan data.

Rhode Island officials and union leaders said they reached a deal to settle challenges to public pension-overhaul laws aimed at strengthening one of the U.S.s most underfunded retirement programs.