Louisiana State Employees Retirement System (LASERS)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System (LASERS) is underfunded: 62% funding ratio, with $6.8B in unfunded actuarial liability against $11.2B in plan assets. Plans below 75% funded face heightened regulatory scrutiny and usually require higher sponsor contributions or benefit adjustments to recover.

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System (LASERS) is a public-sector pension plan sponsored by State of Louisiana — covering government employees (state, local, or special-district workers). Public plans are not ERISA-governed and not PBGC-insured; they rely on state-level oversight and tax-base solvency. 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.

On scale: $11.2B in plan assets across 108,000 covered participants. With 48,000 workers still accruing and 60,000 drawing benefits, the plan has the size to support institutional asset management and full-time actuarial staff. Active and retired participants are roughly balanced (48,000 active, 60,000 retired). The plan is in a steady-state cash-flow phase where new accruals offset benefit payments. Annual cash flows: $950M in sponsor contributions versus $1.0B in benefit payments. Investment performance over the most recent year ran 5.4%, against the plan's assumed long-term return of 7.2%.

PBGC risk classification: high. The plan is on enhanced monitoring and may face funding-improvement or rehabilitation-plan requirements depending on multi-year trajectory. Public plans like Louisiana State Employees Retirement System (LASERS) 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.