Pa.'s largest pension fund under federal investigation

[left-of-center2012]

The board of Pennsylvania’s largest pension fund on Tuesday confirmed for the first time that the plan is a subject of a federal investigation and voted to hire more lawyers to help deal with the probe. The $62 billion Public School Employees' Retirement System covers pensions 250,000 for teachers and school employees.

The Philadelphia Inquirer (newspaper) had reported FBI agents requested information from PSERS last month. The pension fund has said it is probing its own staff after finding that an investment report, approved by a majority of the board in December, was in error, in a way that was likely to have cost taxpayers extra and save school workers from a hike in their pension contributions.

State and local taxpayers are scheduled to pay more than $5 billion to keep the plan solvent this year, while school employees add more than $1 billion through deductions from their school district paychecks. Investment profits added an average $3.7 billion a year for the past 10 years, but fell short last year.

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2021/04/pas-largest-pension-fund-admits-for-the-first-time-that-its-under-federal-investigation.html

[Miguelito Loveless]

1. Pension funds should be forbidden from investing in anything other than

gov't bonds and index funds. Index funds invariably outperform "managed funds" and are way cheaper, since no management fees are required.