New Hampshire Pension Funding Jumps By 4 Percent in 2014

New Hampshire’s state pension fund currently ranks as the sixth most underfunded in the country – but that’s a marked improvement from years past.

As is the case in many states, a series of legislative moves – including insufficient contributions from the state for 15 years – put the pension fund in a hole in the early 2000’s.

But in 2014, the state’s pension funding jumped by 4 percent, to 60.7 percent funded.

From the New Hampshire Business Journal:

The pension trust fund, which has about 49,000 active members and 30,000 pension recipients, ranked as the fifth most underfunded public pension plan in fiscal years 2011 and 2012, according to data collected by Bloomberg.

But New Hampshire’s funding ratio increased slightly from 56.2 percent to 56.7 percent in fiscal year 2013, inching to sixth place. And in fiscal year 2014, New Hampshire’s ratio increased over four percentage points to a 60.7 percent funding ratio, said Marty Karlon, spokesman for the New Hampshire Retirement System

“Last year was a very good year investment-wise and that helped,” he said. The retirement system received a 17.6 percent return on investments in fiscal year 2014, increasing assets to $7.35 billion. In 2013, it saw a 14.5 percent return.

The funding improvement isn’t just a result of investment returns; more importantly, the state has been making its required contributions to the pension fund in recent years.

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