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PensionRisk

Editorial Policy

Last updated: June 2026

This page explains who is behind PensionRisk, how our pages are produced, and the standards every page on pensionrisk.org is held to. We publish it so readers, journalists, and search engines can judge our work by a clear, stated process rather than guesswork.

Who runs PensionRisk

PensionRisk is an independent publication built and maintained by the PensionWatch Team. We are not funded, owned, or directed by any of the agencies, companies, or organizations that appear in our data. We do not accept paid placements, sponsored rankings, or fees to add, alter, or remove an entry. Our editorial judgment is not for sale.

How our content is produced

PensionRisk covers U.S. pension-plan funding health. Our pages are assembled programmatically from DOL Form 5500 filings and the Boston College CRR Public Plans Database: we fetch the primary records, process them with documented, repeatable methods, and render them as pages a non-specialist can read. We combine DOL Form 5500 Schedule SB filings for private single-employer plans with the Boston College Center for Retirement Research Public Plans Database for state and local plans, computing funded ratio, amortization period, and three-year trend. The pension-health composite weights current funding ratio (50%), multi-year funding trend (30%), and PBGC risk classification (20%) into a 0-100 score that translates to an A-F letter grade.

We are transparent that this is a data-publishing operation, not a wire service of on-the-ground reporters. Where we add narrative, that narrative describes and interprets the underlying public data — it never invents facts the data does not contain. Automated assembly is reviewed against the source, and the methodology behind any score or ranking is documented and linkable.

Editorial standards

  • Primary source only. Every figure traces back to DOL Form 5500 filings and the Boston College CRR Public Plans Database, cited and linkable on the page where it appears.
  • No invented numbers. If a value is not in the underlying public data, it does not appear on pensionrisk.org. We never generate synthetic statistics to fill gaps.
  • Documented methodology. Rankings, grades, and composite scores are editorial calculations derived from public data using stated, repeatable formulas — not certifications or endorsements.
  • Dated and refreshed. Refreshed every four months, tracking both DOL Form 5500 releases and CRR Public Plans Database updates. Form 5500 filings are due 7 months after each plan year-end with a 2.5-month extension typical, so the data lag from measurement to publication runs 9-18 months.
  • Corrections welcome. When a reader or the source identifies an error, we fix it — see our Corrections Policy.

Verification and fact-checking

Because our numbers come straight from DOL Form 5500 filings and the Boston College CRR Public Plans Database, our verification work is about faithful processing rather than re-reporting. The detail of how we check figures before publication is described in our Fact-Checking Policy.

Ownership and funding transparency

PensionRisk is part of a small portfolio of independent public-data sites. The site is free to read and carries no display advertising. We do not sell personal data. Where an outbound link is an affiliate link, it is disclosed and never changes our editorial judgment.

Contact

Questions about how a page was produced, or about these standards? hello@pensionrisk.org. See also our About page and our Corrections Policy.