Benefits & ERISA Law

There's A Public/Private Sector Distinction For a Reason

Two of my favorite bloggers ended up at the same place on a topic of interest over the past week, although from different directions and apparently unwittingly. The WorkPlace Prof posted last week on the idea being floated in a number of state legislatures that the states or their pension plans manage private sector 401(k) (or equivalent) plans and funds, and noted that this simply didn’t sound like a good idea. I nodded my head in agreement at the time, but didn’t think much more of it till today, when Susan Mangiero, who blogs at the cleverly named Pension Risk Matters, posted this piece on financially dubious plans in Massachusetts to increase public sector pension payouts, raising questions about both the financially irresponsible nature of the plan and the “smoke filled room” nature of the decision making. Implicitly, the post leads you to the place where the Workplace Prof’s recent post left off, with the idea that state pension plans aren’t necessarily the place to put private sector 401(k) money.

Full post as published by Boston ERISA Law Blog on May 29, 2008 (boomark / email).