Funded Status

Since 1988, the Board of Trustees and management of TRS have repeatedly presented documentation to the Legislature, Governor, participants and interested individuals concerning the potential financial problems facing the pension program.

In simple terms, as more members retire and benefit payments increase, TRS will begin to pay out more than is available from current income sources. Without a substantial change in the TRS funding level, the state of Oklahoma could face the dilemma of large annual appropriations to cover retirement benefits.

Each year the Board and staff develop general and specific legislative recommendations in an effort to meet TRS long-term funding problems. Our message has been to start now to solve the problem before it becomes insurmountable.

Every dollar invested today by TRS will reduce tenfold the requirement on taxpayers 25 to 30 years from now.

Unfortunately TRS is one of the worst-funded public pension plans in the country (See The Truth). The primary reason is the state of Oklahoma has not contributed the amount necessary to properly fund the obligations of TRS. See a chart comparing TRS' funded status with 82 other public pension plans. (Source: 2000 Comparative Study of Major Public Employee Retirement Systems, by the Retirement Research Committee, Wisconsin Legislative Council.)

The Teachers’’ Retirement System continues to be one of the worst-funded state-run pension plans in the country. The System began in 1943 with a deficit and has never been properly funded. As of June 30, 2005, the System’’s market value of assets was $7.24 billion. The actuarial value of assets was $6.95, but the actuarial liabilities totalled $14.052, which results in unfunded liabilities of $7.1 billion.

Current employer contributions (from state and local school districts) will fund the System’’s liabilities in 43 years based on current assumptions on morality, revenue streams, and benefit increases averaging 1% per year. This assumes no other liabilities are added to the total obligations of the System. Since 1970, employer contributions have met the annual actuarial requirement only 8 times. Based on current statutes and projected state and local school district contribution rates, the UAAL is expected to increase until 2029 before being to decline through 2048.