Defined Benefits

Orange County, Californias $11.5 billion pension is putting together a fund open to smaller retirement plans to give them access to private-equity investments at a lower cost.

Employers face a 52 percent increase in the regulatory cost of administering pension plans by 2016 as well as a whopping $150 billion increase in liabilities to retirees with longer life spans.

Detroit will ask the judge to let it seek votes on a debt - reduction plan filed last month by emergency manager Kevyn Orr. That plan would reduce pensions to police officers, firefighters and other city employees.

A civic task force recommends that Jacksonville raise taxes to meet soaring retirement costs that have left a pension fund in Floridas most populous city with 39 percent of what it needs.

Proponents, led by San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, delayed the measure until 2016 to improve its chances of passage.

Poorly structured policies implemented over the past few decades by states and cities are threatening retirement security for public school teachers, according to a new report published by Bellwether Education Partners.