Missouri State Employees Retirement System (MOSERS)

The plan runs underfunded at 72% — $3.7B short of fully covering projected benefit obligations. Recovery typically requires multi-year amortization plus strong investment returns; both factors interact with the broader interest-rate environment.

Missouri State Employees Retirement System (MOSERS) is a government pension plan administered by State of Missouri. Unlike private corporate plans, the benefit guarantee flows from the sponsoring government's ongoing tax authority and contribution obligations rather than from federal insurance. 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: $9.5B in plan assets across 120,000 covered participants. With 56,000 workers still accruing and 64,000 drawing benefits, the plan has the size to support institutional asset management and full-time actuarial staff. Active and retired participants are roughly balanced (56,000 active, 64,000 retired). The plan is in a steady-state cash-flow phase where new accruals offset benefit payments. Annual cash flows: $580M in sponsor contributions versus $780M in benefit payments. Investment performance over the most recent year ran 5.8%, against the plan's assumed long-term return of 7.0%.

PBGC risk classification: moderate. The plan's funded status puts it under enhanced monitoring but not active intervention. Public plans like Missouri State Employees Retirement System (MOSERS) 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.