Alan Butkovitz

Pension Crisis: Could Buyouts Be a Solution?

State and local governments are trying unconventional ways to fund their pension liabilities, such as offering lump-sum cash payments to employees.
BY  SEPTEMBER 15, 2016

When it comes to chipping away at pension liabilities, there aren’t a lot of options. In some places, lawmakers can freeze cost-of-living increases to pension payments or move back retirement dates for existing employees. But that’s not legal everywhere. So the majority of pension reforms in the past decade have targeted new employees and focused on controlling the growth of future liabilities.

But some places are getting more creative.