Pre‐retirement mortality rates are based on 130 percent of the Pub‐2010 General Employee Mortality tables (males and females) for State and Local Government divisions and 170 percent of the Pub‐2010 Safety Employee Mortality tables (males and females) for the Public Safety and Law Enforcement divisions. Post‐retirement mortality rates are based on 115 percent of the PubG‐2010 Retiree Mortality Tables (males and females) for all divisions. Post‐retirement mortality rates for disabled retirees are based on the PubNS‐2010 Disabled Retiree Mortality Tables (males and females) for all divisions. For all of the previously described tables, the base year is 2010 and mortality rates for a particular calendar year are determined by applying the MP‐2020 mortality improvement scales (males and females) to all of these tables.
The most recent experience study was completed for the five year period ended December 31, 2020.
During 2023, OPERS managed investments in three investment portfolios: the Defined Benefit portfolio, the Defined Contribution portfolio and the Health Care portfolio. The Defined Benefit portfolio contains the investment assets of the Traditional Pension Plan, the defined benefit component of the Combined Plan and the annuitized accounts of the Member‐Directed Plan. Within the Defined Benefit portfolio, contributions into the plans are all recorded at the same time, and benefit payments all occur on the first of the month. Accordingly, the money‐weighted rate of return is considered to be the same for all plans within the portfolio. The annual money‐weighted rate of return expressing investment performance, net of investment expenses and adjusted for the changing amounts actually invested, for the Defined Benefit portfolio was a gain of 11.2 percent for 2023.
The allocation of investment assets with the Defined Benefit portfolio is approved by the Board of Trustees as outlined in the annual investment plan. Plan assets are managed on a total return basis with a long‐term objective of achieving and maintaining a fully funded status for the benefits provided through the defined benefit pension plans. The long‐term expected rate of return on defined benefit investment assets was determined using a building‐block method in which best‐estimate ranges of expected future real rates of return are developed for each major asset class. These ranges are combined to produce the long‐term expected real rate of return by weighting the expected future real rates of return by the target asset allocation percentage, adjusted for inflation. Best estimates of geometric rates of return were provided by the Board’s investment consultant. For each major class that is included in the Defined Benefit portfolio’s target asset allocation as of December 31, 2023, these best estimates are summarized below: