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PensionWatch

Arkansas Teacher Retirement System

public plan · State of Arkansas · Fort Smith, AR

ACTIVE
B
Pension Health Score
68/100
Funding Status72% Funded
0%80% threshold100%
$16.5B
Total Assets
$23.0B
Total Liabilities
$6.5B
Unfunded Liability
112,410
Participants

Funding History

What This Means for You

Arkansas Teacher Retirement System is in good financial health at 72% funded. This means for every dollar the plan owes in future benefits, it has 72 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
2025$16.5B$23.0B71.6%$499.1M
2024$15.8B$22.4B70.4%$622.7M
2023$15.6B$24.1B64.6%$526.6M
2022$14.6B$20.8B70.5%$636.4M
2021$14.0B$20.3B69.0%$668.0M

Frequently Asked Questions

Arkansas Teacher Retirement System is 72% funded, meaning it has 72 cents in assets for every dollar in future benefit obligations. This is below the 80% threshold actuaries consider healthy, and may require increased contributions.

Arkansas Teacher Retirement System has 112,410 total participants, including 40,654 active employees and 71,756 retirees currently receiving benefits.

Arkansas Teacher Retirement System 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.