Pension Crisis Deepens in U.S. as Strategies Shift, Outlooks Dim

Pedestrians walk along Wall Street in New York.

Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg 

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Public pensions across the U.S. have a big problem: The gap between their assets and liabilities is growing while the outlook for investment returns is worsening.

“For the next 10 years, our expected returns are 6.1%, not 7%,” Chief Investment Officer Ben Meng told the board of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System last week. Calpers, the country’s largest pension at about $366 billion, lowered its long-term investing return target to 7% in late 2016.