Pennsylvania’s multibillion-dollar state and school employee pension funds could report losses of 30 percent to 40 percent for the calendar year, outgoing Pennsylvania Treasurer Robin Weissman estimates.

But unlike private-sector workers faced with plummeting 401(k) values, members of the public pension plans have few worries. State law prohibits any reduction in benefit rates either to retirees or for workers enrolled in the plan.

The two state plans pay benefits to about 275,000 retirees. About 374,000 active state and school employees stand to collect benefits in the future.  read more »

State pension funds generally, and Pennsylvania’s Public School Employees Retirement System in particular, came under scrutiny in a Forbes Magazine article this month for their investments in private real estate “opportunity funds.”

The report asserted in part that the systems find themselves in a deteriorating real estate market with no regular, real-time public yardsticks — such as the stock exchange for publicly held companies or mutual funds — to gauge performance.

One pension fund adviser told Forbes a few funds nationally will likely see losses on their opportunity fund investments in the next year or two.  read more »