Everyone in the US needs to read a report “The evolution of the Canadian pension model; practical lessons for building world-class pension organizations” to understand how they can improve the governance at all their public pensions.'Let me be blunt: Chicago's police pension is on life-support and they're about to stop the ventilator.
Importantly, when a pension plan's funded status drops below 50%, it's past the point of no return; when it drops below 25%, it's dead on arrival!
This is what happens when cities and states shirk their responsibility to properly fund a public pension and when you have poor governance that exposes a fund to potential corruption and fraud.
But forget allegations of fraud and corruption, which we all know are endemic to Chicago, the police pension plan is way past the point of no return and no hedge fund or private equity fund can save it from oblivion.
It makes my blood boil when I read these articles and reports because these are pensions of police officers working in one of the most dangerous cities in America.
Like Tobe states, these are retired police officers, disabled officers, widows, as well as active police officers who expect their pension plan to be managed properly so they and their loved ones can retire in dignity and security.
I don't want to scare these people but unless Cook County State's Attorney, Kim Foxx, intervenes to properly investigate what the hell is going on at the Chicago pension plan, I'm afraid this is going to go from a disaster to a nuclear bomb.
Importantly, this pension is a textbook case of poor governance: lack of transparency, accountability, high fees, pay to play nonsense that should be outlawed by now, etc.
But the state and city are equally responsible for why this pension is grossly underfunded, completely disregarding their legal responsibility to properly top up this plan over the years.
In fact, I would lay more responsibility on the state and city governments than anyone else for this unfolding disaster.
Lastly, if it were up to me and I was king of the United States for a day, I'd do away with all these smaller rinky-dink local and city pension funds and amalgamate them all so they are managed by the state's public pension fund which tends to have better governance and a lot more transparency.
Not that this would make much of a difference in Illinois which is notorious for having one of the worst state pensions in the United States.
Everyone in the US needs to read a report “
The evolution of the Canadian pension model; practical lessons for building world-class pension organizations” to understand how they can improve the governance at all their public pensions.
Don't hold your breath, however, there are vested interests which don't want to see state or other smaller public pensions adopt governance elements that led to success of Canada's large pensions.'
- Leo Kolivakis,
Chicago Police Pension on the Verge of Bankruptcy? September 7, 2021
Context'..world-class governance which separates governments from pensions .. and adopting a shared risk model..''..make sure it is solvent for generations to come.''..all of Canada's large pensions offer their members, peace of mind knowing their retirement is being managed properly.''..the Netherlands and Denmark best placed with A-Grade world class retirement income systems with good benefits..''What good is a pension if the world is unlivable by the time the next generation needs to collect it.''.."omnipotent central banks" .. create huge distortions..''..[the] industry receiv[ing] the most subsidies .. is the financial sector via money for nothing from central banks..' - '..BIS dissidents..''..most are unprepared for the worst bear market ever..'('..its Credit expansion .. China Bubble thesis') - Weary of Their Experiment in Capitalism - By Doug Noland(Banking Reform - English/Dutch) '..a truly stable financial and monetary system for the twenty-first century..'(Haptopraxeology - Electric Universe - Teal - Bazaarmodel) - Educating for Wisdom and Compassion: Creating Conditions for Timeless Learning