The Pew Charitable Trusts' public sector retirement systems project performs 50-state and major city research on all aspects of public pension systems, including fiscal health, investment practices, benefits design, and governance. State- and locally run retirement systems currently manage trillions of dollars in public pension fund investments.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to investments, but allocation of assets and bottom-line performance ultimately determine plans' fiscal health and the ability to pay for promised retirement benefits. In fact, experts estimate that investment returns account for 60 percent of pension benefits.