Retirement Trends

Standard & Poors declared Illinois fiscal outlook developing, an improvement, if a somewhat fuzzy one, over its previous negative outlook.

They argues in a letter that recalculating spousal benefits, death benefits and required minimum distributions to same sex partners would open plans and participants to complicated questions about payments and decisions made under DOMA.

Most people are not equipped to invest their funds or withdraw them in a way that allows them to maintain their lifestyle while preserving principal.

State pension funds more than doubled their allocations to alternative investments between 2006 and 2012, about a $600 billion increase.

According to data from the Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index, the pension deficit is below $100 billion for the first time in five years as the funded status increased by $34 billion during November.

The economic capital of Illinois and the Midwest, Chicago holds the dubious distinction of having the worst-funded public pension system of any major U.S. city.