CENTRAL OHIO -- With the stock market dropping nearly half its value in the past 16 months, the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, or OPERS, has seen its assets lose a third of their value, dropping from a peak of $84 billion down to less than $56 billion.
Why have OPERS' 900,000 members not been impacted?
OPERS CEO Chris DeRose explained the pension's risk is spread out.
As hundreds of thousands of public employees contribute 10 percent of their pretax income throughout their career, they don't all retire at the same time so the payouts are spread out over decades.
As a result, the good investment years balance out the bad years, allowing for an eight percent annual return.
"While currently the markets are in a down turn -- and certainly our assets have declined -- and that's of concern, the previous five years we made eight percent, nine percent, 12 percent, 14 percent and then in 2003 we made 23 percent," Derose said.
The State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, or STRS, has had its portfolio diminish 31 percent in value since last June: declining from $72.6 billion to roughly $50 billion.
STRS' 450,000 members won't seen any immediate changes, but spokesperson Laura Ecklar said the unprecedented drop prompted the STRS governing board last week to order a re-evaluation of future pension obligations in case changes need to be made.
"We're not seeing eight percent return right now, and it may be awhile before that occurs. That's why they need to take this look now," Ecklar said.
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