The board of trustees of the $20-billion Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi (PERS) trust fund has agreed to up the state’s contribution to the plan in 2014 in hopes of reversing a slide in the funded portion of the trust’s liabilities. The move follows a composite loss of $1.87 billion for fiscal 2012 and [...] [...]
The head of the Public Employees Retirement System of Mississippi says the $20.7-billion retirement trust fund is constitutionally protected but she doubts the benefits of retirees and public sector workers enrolled in the plan have the same protections. “However, this could be debated,” said Pat Robertson, PERS executive director. She cited a 1986 amendment to [...] [...]
JACKSON- Public Employees Retirement System of Mississippi executive director Pat Robertson comments on recent developments at PERS at a May 2 Stennis Institute luncheon. [...]

Legislators inserted funding in recently passed appropriations, including state’s full 12.9 percent contribution starting Jan. 1 Mississippi’s public employee retirement system took a hit this legislative session but not the full scale blow for which its managers had been bracing. The retirement system must wait six months for the state to begin handing over a [...] [...]
Ask a room full of economists and financial planners to create a model for funding a defined public pension plan. The lines likely will divide this way: Pension commitments are too sacrosanct to be risked on a stock market roller coaster. Shelter the money in very low-risk instruments. Look at the equities market over the [...] [...]

Mississippi often ends up high on the list of states with pension fund obligations out of balance with the money coming in to meet the obligations. Is the state’s latest delay in funding an increased share about to accelerate an imbalance that hovers in the $10-billion range? Not according to Pat Robertson, director of the [...] [...]