Georgia Employees Retirement System (ERS)

The plan is moderately funded (77%). $17.8B in assets back $23.1B in projected obligations, leaving $5.3B to close through future contributions and investment returns.

State of Georgia runs Georgia Employees Retirement System (ERS) as a public-sector defined-benefit plan. The plan operates outside the ERISA framework; oversight comes from state pension boards and the sponsor's legislative body rather than the federal Department of Labor or PBGC. The plan remains active — accruing new benefits for current employees and accepting new participants. Among private-sector single-employer plans, the active status is increasingly rare as employers freeze accruals while continuing to fund existing obligations; public-sector plans are more often still actively accruing.

Georgia Employees Retirement System (ERS) is a large pension plan with $17.8B in assets and 138,000 participants (65,000 active, 73,000 retired). Large plans usually have professional investment management and complex actuarial structures. Active and retired participants are roughly balanced (65,000 active, 73,000 retired). The plan is in a steady-state cash-flow phase where new accruals offset benefit payments. Annual cash flows: $1.0B in sponsor contributions versus $1.3B in benefit payments. Investment performance over the most recent year ran 5.9%, against the plan's assumed long-term return of 7.2%.

PBGC risk classification: moderate. The plan's funded status puts it under enhanced monitoring but not active intervention. Public plans like Georgia Employees Retirement System (ERS) are not PBGC-insured. The benefit guarantee rests on the sponsoring government's ability and willingness to make required contributions, which interacts with state and local tax-base dynamics.