FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Raleigh, N.C.) –
State Treasurer Dale R. Folwell, CPA, issued the following statement:
We want to assure the nearly 950,000 members who are paying into or receiving pension payments from the North Carolina Retirement Systems that the stock market’s recent downturn will have no impact on their pension payments. As of today, the state pension plans are down less than 1%. This is because the plans have been conservatively managed under the Folwell administration and other administrations for the past 50 years.
In fact, Moody’s Investors Service recently reported that North Carolina’s Retirement Systems is the best funded in the nation when looking at its Adjusted Net Pension Liability. Additionally, a recent “stress test” by The Pew Charitable Trusts concluded that North Carolina’s state pension fund is well-positioned to maintain solvency during tough economic times.
We are in the check delivery business. We pay out over $6.5 billion a year in pension payments to those that teach, protect and serve the people of North Carolina.
The North Carolina Retirement Systems is the ninth-largest public pension fund in the country and is currently valued at more than $105 billion. It provides retirement benefits and savings for more than 950,000 North Carolinians, including teachers, state employees, local governments, firefighters, police officers and other public workers.