Contending with Pension Deficit Disorder

Members of the GlobeTax team spent three days at the National Conference of Public Employment Retirement Systems’ (NCPERS) Annual Conference & Exhibition. There, trustees, investment officers, and service providers gathered to discuss the current state of public defined benefit (DB) plans and highlight ways to improve portfolio outcomes in an uncertain world of funding gaps and looming deficits. Below, we overview several of our biggest takeaways from the conference.

GlobeTax Director of Sales Tom Grande delivered a presentation about one such performance-boosting strategy: withholding tax recovery. In synthesizing insights from the conference, the team concluded that many pension investors enjoy untapped, yet significant, opportunities for recovery– especially compared to those investing through self-directed DC plans like IRAs and 401(k)s. The pension advantages come from scale, fund structure, and fiduciary duty.