ThinkAdvisor: R.I. among top 10 worst-funded state pensions

RHODE ISLAND made the top 10 list of the worst-funded state pensions by ThinkAdvisor, / COURTESY THINKADVISOR
RHODE ISLAND made the top 10 list of the worst-funded state pensions by ThinkAdvisor, / COURTESY THINKADVISOR

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island made the top 10 list of the worst-funded state pensions by ThinkAdvisor, which provides information for the investment advisory community.
Pew Charitable Trusts in July released a report looking at where all 50 state pension plans stand. The results can best be categorized as the good, the mediocre and the ugly. Today we are focusing on the ugly. The really ugly,” ThinkAdvisor wrote on its website.
“For the worst-funded pensions systems, it will take a lot of fiscal discipline and some luck with investment returns to catch up,” ThinkAdvisor said.
The worst state, according to the ranking, is Illinois, with a 39 percent funded state pension plan, and liability of $165.4 billion.
The rest of the worst states in order are: Kentucky, Connecticut, Alaska, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Louisiana, Michigan, Kansas and Hawaii.
Rhode Island tied with Louisiana for its 58 percent funded plan, featuring liabilities of $10.7 billion, and $4.4 billion unfunded. Louisiana had a$45.4 billion liability, with $19 billion unfunded, according to the report.
Figures are based on 2013 data. Pew ranked states by the percentage of their pensions that were funded. Only two states were deemed fully funded, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
Pew Charitable Trust said the nation’s state-run retirement systems had a $968 billion shortfall in 2013 between pension benefits that governments have promised to their workers and funding available to meet those obligations – a $54 billion increase from the previous year.

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