About PlainPension

Our Mission

PlainPension exists because public employees, retirees, and taxpayers deserve transparent access to public pension fund financial data — without needing actuarial expertise to interpret it. Over 14 million Americans depend on public pension plans for their retirement security. The financial health of these plans directly affects whether promised benefits will be paid in full, whether taxpayers will face increased contributions, and whether state and local governments can fund other essential services.

Despite the enormous stakes, pension financial data has traditionally been accessible only to actuaries, finance professionals, and policy researchers with the tools to parse complex actuarial valuation reports. PlainPension changes this by presenting key pension health metrics — funded ratios, unfunded liabilities, investment returns, and contribution rates — in a clear, searchable format that anyone can understand.

What We Track

We track 197 major US public pension plans covering over 14 million active employees and retirees. Our database includes:

  • Funded ratios: The primary measure of pension financial health, expressing plan assets as a percentage of plan liabilities. A ratio of 100% means fully funded; below 100% means the plan has unfunded liabilities.
  • Unfunded liabilities: The dollar gap between what plans owe in promised benefits and the assets available to pay them. Measured in billions of dollars.
  • Investment returns: 1-year and 5-year annualized returns on plan assets. Performance relative to assumed return rates is a key driver of funded status.
  • ARC payment rates: Whether governments are making their Actuarially Required Contributions. Underpaying the ARC increases unfunded liabilities over time.
  • Health grades (A-F): Our composite assessment based on funded ratio, contribution discipline, and trend direction.
  • Historical data: Financial data from 2001 to present, enabling long-term trend analysis across economic cycles.

Our Data Source

PlainPension is powered by the Public Plans Database (PPD), a collaboration between the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College and the National Association of State Retirement Administrators (NASRA). The PPD is the most comprehensive public pension database in the United States, aggregating data from actuarial valuations and Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFRs) submitted by each plan. Official source: PublicPlansData.org.

The PPD is widely used by researchers, policymakers, and financial analysts as the official source for US public pension financial data. Because the underlying data comes from actuarial valuations conducted by independent actuaries, it is more reliable than self-reported financial summaries.

How We Process the Data

We download the PPD dataset and process it through the following steps:

  • Plan identification: Each of the 197 plans is linked to its state, plan type (state, local, teacher, public safety), and membership statistics.
  • Health grade calculation: Our A-F grades combine funded ratio (primary weight), ARC payment discipline, funded ratio trend, and investment performance relative to assumptions. Grades are relative rankings within the universe of tracked plans.
  • Historical trend assembly: Financial data spanning 2001 to present is organized into time series for each plan, enabling visualization of long-term funded ratio trajectories and the impact of market events (2008 crisis, 2020 pandemic).
  • State-level aggregation: Plans are grouped by state to enable state-level comparison of pension financial health and identify states with systemic pension challenges.

Data Currency

PlainPension displays the most recent data available in the Public Plans Database. The PPD is updated annually as plans publish their actuarial valuations and CAFRs. There is an inherent lag — actuarial valuations typically reflect a fiscal year that ended 6-18 months prior. We update PlainPension within 30 days of each new PPD release.

Because pension financial health changes slowly (funded ratios shift by a few percentage points per year under normal conditions), the lag is less problematic than for more volatile financial data. However, significant market events can cause rapid changes in funded status that may not yet be reflected in the most recent valuations.

Editorial Independence

Content on PlainPension is compiled by our editorial team. Raw data from DOL Form 5500 public filings, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), state pension plan administrators, and the Public Plans Database (PPD) is transformed into readable plan profiles by our continuous editorial pipeline, validated against the source before publication. The PlainPension editorial team, operating under Kiznis Studio, is responsible for editorial standards, methodology, and corrections.

We do not accept payment, sponsorship, or promoted placement from pension plans, plan administrators, investment managers, actuarial firms, or any covered entity. Our only revenue source is contextual display advertising served by Google AdSense — advertisers do not influence which plans we cover or how we present data, and they do not receive preferential placement.

Not financial advice. PlainPension is an informational resource about public pension plan health. Nothing on this site constitutes retirement, investment, tax, or legal advice. Consult a qualified financial advisor or your plan administrator for decisions affecting your retirement.

Limitations and Disclaimers

PlainPension is an informational resource. Important limitations:

  • Actuarial assumptions vary: Different plans use different discount rates, mortality tables, and salary growth assumptions. These differences affect funded ratio calculations. A plan reporting 80% funded using a 7% discount rate would show a lower funded ratio under a 6% assumption. Direct comparisons between plans should account for assumption differences.
  • Funded ratio is not a complete picture: A plan can be 70% funded and stable (if contributions are adequate) or 90% funded and deteriorating (if contributions are insufficient). Always look at ARC payment rates and funded ratio trends alongside the point-in-time ratio.
  • Data lag: Actuarial valuations lag the current date by 6-18 months. Market movements since the most recent valuation date are not captured.
  • Not financial advice: PlainPension does not provide retirement planning, investment, or legal advice. Consult a qualified financial advisor or your plan administrator for personalized guidance.

Contact

Questions about our data or methodology? Email hello@plainpension.com.

We welcome:

  • Questions about data sources or methodology
  • Reports of apparent data errors
  • Suggestions for additional metrics or features
  • Media and research inquiries

PlainPension is published by Kiznis Studio, a data intelligence company building free, public-interest data portals from government datasets.