GASB 67 and 68 pension valuations

Optimizing Foundations prepares GASB 67 and GASB 68 pension valuations and the employer-level reporting that follows from them. For single-employer and agent plans the firm performs the full valuation. For governments in a cost-sharing state system, the firm prepares the employer's proportionate share, deferred inflows and outflows and journal entries from the system's audited figures.

What is included

• Plan reporting under GASB 67. Total pension liability, fiduciary net position, net pension liability, the long-term expected return and discount rate development including the depletion test, and the schedules of changes and contributions.
• Employer reporting under GASB 68. Pension expense, deferred inflows and outflows by source and the amortization schedules, the employer's proportionate share for cost-sharing plans, and the note disclosures and RSI.
• Funding valuations. The actuarially determined contribution under the plan's funding policy, with projections of the contribution and funded status under alternative policies and assumptions.
• Experience studies and benefit studies. Assumption reviews on the plan's own experience, and the costing of benefit changes, retirement age changes and deferred retirement option programs for legislative and bargaining discussions.

How the work runs

Data arrives through the client portal and is reconciled person by person to the prior valuation. Results are reviewed with the system's staff and finance office before the report is final, and a second credentialed actuary reviews every deliverable. The firm supports the auditors through sign-off and, for cost-sharing systems, prepares the employer allocation schedules the participating governments rely on.

A recent engagement

A state troopers' association asked whether the mandatory retirement age in the state police retirement system was still right and what a deferred retirement option program would do. The firm's study modeled plan cost, member outcomes and workforce effects together for the association's legislative discussions.

Common questions

Can the firm serve as the actuary for a large public system? The firm's actuaries have audited and valued public plans at the state and municipal level for decades and have served statewide systems on benefit studies. Scope and staffing are set with the system at the start of the engagement.

We are a small government in a state system. What do we need? The GASB 68 employer schedules: your proportionate share, deferred items, pension expense and journal entries, prepared from the system's audited allocation report. This is a smaller engagement than a full valuation.

Every deliverable described here is reviewed by a second credentialed actuary before delivery. This page is general information about the firm's services and is not advice for any specific plan.