By Michael Pramik, Ohio Public Employees Retirement System
OPERS has released its 2017 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, a yearly look at our financial, investment, actuarial and demographic measurements.
This year’s theme is “Focused Forward: Every step makes a difference.” It emphasizes that each decision made in the retirement saving process, no matter how seemingly small, makes a contribution to retirement security.
OPERS employees work daily to make sure each step we take propels the organization forward to achieve five main goals:
- Provide a stable pension for all OPERS retirees.
- Continue to provide a meaningful retiree health care program.
- Minimize drastic plan design changes.
- Be financially positioned to react to market volatility.
- Maintain intergenerational equity.
Here are some of the facts you’ll discover about OPERS in the 2017 CAFR:
- OPERS had a net position of $101.4 billion at the end of 2017, the first time in our history that net position topped $100 billion.
- The system’s funded status at year-end was 81 percent.
- We are able to pay off our unfunded liabilities within 18 years, 12 years sooner than mandated by Ohio law.
- Health care expenses in 2017 were $1.0 billion.
- The OPERS defined benefit investment portfolio returned 16.82 percent for the year; the health care portfolio returned 15.25 percent; the defined contribution portfolio returned 17.39 percent.
- In 2017, member and employer contributions in all our pension plans totaled $3.4 billion, compared with net income from investing activity of $14.6 billion.
- Of the 347,730 active members in our system, 94.4 percent have chosen the defined benefit plan, 3.3 percent the defined contribution plan and 2.3 percent the hybrid plan.
- Our new retirees’ average pension was $2,285.
- Of the 210,868 retirees in OPERS, 89 percent remained Ohio residents as of Dec. 31, 2017.
- OPERS made $5.3 billion in pension benefit payments last year to Ohio residents.
