Philadelphia Municipal Retirement System

Philadelphia Municipal Retirement System is severely underfunded at 48%, with $6.2B in unfunded liability. Plans in this bracket face significant solvency risk and are typically on regulatory funding-improvement plans, with active intervention from PBGC for private plans or state pension boards for public ones.

Philadelphia Municipal Retirement System is a government pension plan administered by City of Philadelphia. 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: $5.8B in plan assets across 63,000 covered participants. With 28,000 workers still accruing and 35,000 drawing benefits, the plan has the size to support institutional asset management and full-time actuarial staff. Active and retired participants are roughly balanced (28,000 active, 35,000 retired). The plan is in a steady-state cash-flow phase where new accruals offset benefit payments. Annual cash flows: $780M in sponsor contributions versus $720M in benefit payments. Investment performance over the most recent year ran 4.8%, 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 Philadelphia Municipal 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.