San Francisco Employees Retirement System
public plan · City and County of San Francisco · San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Employees Retirement System is moderately funded at 87% — assets of $33.8B against $38.7B in actuarial liabilities. Unfunded liability sits at $4.9B. Plans in this band are common and often follow regulatory amortization schedules to close the gap over time.
City and County of San Francisco runs San Francisco Employees Retirement System 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.
On scale: $33.8B in plan assets across 68,000 covered participants. With 35,000 workers still accruing and 33,000 drawing benefits, the plan has the size to support institutional asset management and full-time actuarial staff. Active and retired participants are roughly balanced (35,000 active, 33,000 retired). The plan is in a steady-state cash-flow phase where new accruals offset benefit payments. Annual cash flows: $1.8B in sponsor contributions versus $2.1B in benefit payments. Investment performance over the most recent year ran 6.4%, against the plan's assumed long-term return of 7.2%.
On PBGC risk classification: low — the plan's funded status and solvency trajectory are favorable enough that PBGC intervention is not on the near-term horizon. Public plans like San Francisco Employees 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.
Source: DOL EFAST2 Form 5500 filings and Boston College CRR Public Plans Database.
Funding History
What This Means for You
San Francisco Employees Retirement System is in excellent financial health at 87% funded. This means for every dollar the plan owes in future benefits, it has 87 cents in assets to cover it. As a public pension, benefits are typically backed by the taxing authority of the sponsoring government. Participants in this plan have relatively low risk of benefit reductions.
Year-by-Year Funding
| Year | Assets | Liabilities | Funding Ratio | Contributions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | $33.8B | $38.7B | 87.3% | $1.8B |
| 2022 | $32.8B | $38.1B | 86.0% | $1.7B |
| 2021 | $31.8B | $35.7B | 89.0% | $1.7B |
| 2020 | $30.8B | $37.1B | 83.0% | $1.6B |
| 2019 | $29.7B | $35.0B | 85.0% | $1.6B |
Frequently Asked Questions
San Francisco Employees Retirement System is 87% funded, meaning it has 87 cents in assets for every dollar in future benefit obligations. This is considered healthy by actuarial standards.
San Francisco Employees Retirement System has 68,000 total participants, including 35,000 active employees and 33,000 retirees currently receiving benefits.
San Francisco Employees Retirement System is not covered by the PBGC. Benefits depend entirely on the plan's assets and the sponsor's ability to fund it.
The Pension Health Score (0-100, A-F) measures a pension plan's financial strength based on funding ratio (50%), funding trend over 3 years (30%), and PBGC risk level (20%). Higher scores indicate more secure retirement benefits.
Pension Health Score is calculated from funding ratio, 3-year funding trend, and PBGC risk classification.