Paper Tiger - the N.Y.S. Department of Financial Services - Pension Fund Audits

In July of 2013 the N.Y.S. Department of Financial Services (DFS) with a lot of fanfare announced the start of an audit of the seven state & city pension funds.

It's now January 20, 2015 and DFS has not yet produced any of the pension audits. Just a reminder, DFS has not produced an audit of NYCERS since 2002 in spite of the agency's statutory obligation to produce an audit every five years.

Of course, DFS collected $611,536 from NYCERS during FY-2014 for audit work that DFS supposedly did during that year.

When I saw the charges for 2014, I thought I'd do a little research. Here are the DFS audit charges to NYCERS since 2004:

• 2004: $ 55,007
• 2005: $ 64,612
• 2006: $361,681
• 2009: $179,542
• 2010: $ 32,009
• 2011: $ 29,713
• 2014: $611,536

This is an agency adrift. They are lost.

The State Insurance Department Finally Wakes Up!

On Monday, July 29, 2013, the NYS Department of Financial Services (DFS) finally woke up.

In June of 2012, I had pointed out the agency's failure to do its job. And, again in March of this year I detailed continuing delay in its statutory obligation.

DFS is now initiating audits of the seven NYS retirement systems.

For the record, DFS has not released a report since the 2000-2002 audit for NYCERS.

I am absolutely certain that NYCERS needs a rigorous top to bottom audit of everything that it is supposed to be doing. Maybe DFS now has the hard focus it will need to get this job done.

How boring our lives would be without politicians.

Finally the Actuary Gets 7% "Net of Expenses"

On January 30, 2013, the governor signed the law changing the assumed interest rate for the five city pension funds from 8% gross of expenses to 7% net of expenses. This new rate is effective as of July 1, 2011. The rate should have gone into effect on July 1, 2009 when the five year term of the old 8% rate ended. That is two years of underfunding for all of the city pension funds. That does not mean that the new rate is an appropriate rate, just better.

I love Bob's little twist on the new rate, "net of expenses". In plain English this means the new rate is actually higher than 7% when compared to the old 8%.

The expenses in FY-2012 were $486.7M($370.3M investments and ($116.4M administrative). The assets as of June 30, 2011 were $111B. A 7% return is $7.777B, add on the $486M and you have $8.263B. That is a 7.4% rate needed to cover the 7% "net of expenses". The bottom line is that the target rate for 2012 was 7.4% gross of expenses.

Unfortunately, for FY-2012 the five city pension funds fell short of their target by $5.963B. Over the last 13 years the shortfall is $38.375B. Either the trustees are going to have to ramp up their investment skills or the taxpayers are going to have to continue to cover their losses.