State Retirement System Officials Prepared for More Future Retirees

State Retirement officials say they have been preparing for potential cost increases as more and more Louisiana residents approach retirement age.

Shelley Johnson said when a state employee joins one of the state’s four retirement systems, actuaries, like her, calculate the amount of contributions necessary to pay for their expected benefits.

Every possible retirement scenario is assigned a liability and those liabilities are part of what is used to calculate employer contributions and needed investment earnings,
Johnson said.

Some government agencies have voiced concern over the impact of the aging baby boomer population — those born between 1946 and 1964. Boomers will reach retirement age starting in 2011.

But state retirement officials say they have already accounted for those expected retirees.

“The expected increase in benefit payouts for baby boomers has generated more aggregate contributions over their careers,” said Lisa Honore, spokeswoman for the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana, or TRSL, in an e-mail. “Therefore, the planning is inherent in the actuarial funding methods used by the system, so no special considerations are necessary.”