Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System

Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System is underfunded: 68% funding ratio, with $8.6B in unfunded actuarial liability against $18.2B in plan assets. Plans below 75% funded face heightened regulatory scrutiny and usually require higher sponsor contributions or benefit adjustments to recover.

Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System is a government pension plan administered by State of Oklahoma. 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: $18.2B in plan assets across 162,000 covered participants. With 80,000 workers still accruing and 82,000 drawing benefits, the plan has the size to support institutional asset management and full-time actuarial staff. The participant mix runs roughly even between 80,000 active workers and 82,000 retirees — a balanced demographic profile that gives the plan time to compound investment returns before payouts dominate cash flow. Annual cash flows: $1.2B in sponsor contributions versus $1.5B in benefit payments. Investment performance over the most recent year ran 5.4%, 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 Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System 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.