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PensionWatch

Alabama Employees Retirement System (ERS)

public plan · State of Alabama · Montgomery, AL

ACTIVE
B
Pension Health Score
67/100
Funding Status70% Funded
0%80% threshold100%
$15.5B
Total Assets
$22.2B
Total Liabilities
$6.7B
Unfunded Liability
132,000
Participants

Funding History

What This Means for You

Alabama Employees Retirement System (ERS) is in good financial health at 70% funded. This means for every dollar the plan owes in future benefits, it has 70 cents in assets to cover it. As a public pension, benefits are typically backed by the taxing authority of the sponsoring government. Participants in this plan have relatively low risk of benefit reductions.

Year-by-Year Funding

YearAssetsLiabilitiesFunding RatioContributions
2023$15.5B$22.2B69.8%$850.0M
2022$15.0B$22.1B68.0%$824.5M
2021$14.6B$20.5B71.0%$799.0M
2020$14.1B$21.7B65.0%$773.5M
2019$13.6B$20.4B67.0%$748.0M

Frequently Asked Questions

Alabama Employees Retirement System (ERS) is 70% funded, meaning it has 70 cents in assets for every dollar in future benefit obligations. This is below the 80% threshold actuaries consider healthy, and may require increased contributions.

Alabama Employees Retirement System (ERS) has 132,000 total participants, including 62,000 active employees and 70,000 retirees currently receiving benefits.

Alabama Employees Retirement System (ERS) is not covered by the PBGC. Benefits depend entirely on the plan's assets and the sponsor's ability to fund it.

The Pension Health Score (0-100, A-F) measures a pension plan's financial strength based on funding ratio (50%), funding trend over 3 years (30%), and PBGC risk level (20%). Higher scores indicate more secure retirement benefits.

Last updated:

Pension Health Score is calculated from funding ratio, 3-year funding trend, and PBGC risk classification.