Value History with the SBCERS Pension Fund

Now I am not sure how many of you have followed in detail my concerns with the Santa Barbara County Employees Pension fund? There are so many documents to keep track of I doubt anyone but me has the time to try and decipher this tangled web of deception. Now there is a document called the White Paper that was written in 2006. County of Santa Barbara Office of the Auditor-Controller County Retirement Costs: White Paper by Robert W. Geis, CPA (Through June, 30, 2006) an can be found @ http://www.countyofsb.org/auditor/Publications/CountyRetirementCosts.pdf

I took me quite a while to understand what was wrong with how the SBCERS fund value was being reported to the California State Controllers office. Please take the time to walk through this posting and understand this very important point I am attempting to make. If you chose you may follow the steps I have laid out below in brackets which will enable you to verify the source of my findings. Or simply skip below the links below and we will continue from there.

(Now there is a picture in this posting and it comes from the California State Controllers Pension summary for June 30^th 1998 and is marked page 57. I have created a link to the State Controller web page that list the reports as I have shown. When you are able lease select the report for year 1997-98 and is marked with two *. When you click on that file it will take you to the next link that is marked with 3 *.)

http://www.sco.ca.gov/ard_locrep_retirement.html

Public Retirement Systems Annual Report

Fiscal Year 2007-08 

• Fiscal Year 2006-07 

• Fiscal Year 2005-06 

• Fiscal Year 2004-05 

• Fiscal Year 2003-04 

• Fiscal Year 2002-03 

• Fiscal Year 2001-02 

• Fiscal Year 2000-01 

• Fiscal Year 1999-00 

• Fiscal Year 1998-99 

• Fiscal Year 1997-98  **

• Fiscal Year 1996-97  (Summary)  
  

http://www.sco.ca.gov/Files-ARD-Local/LocRep/retirement_reports_retirement9798.pdf ***

STATEMENT OF PLAN NET ASSETS
AS OF JUNE 30, 1998

TOTAL ASSETS $ 1,094,120,544 BEGINNING OF THE YEAR NET ASSETS HELD
NET ASSETS AVAILABLE FOR BENEFITS $ 1,062,931,561 AS OF June 30th 1998


 BENEFITS  In Trust $ 888,876,118 As of June 30th 1997

The END Of YEAR NET ASSETS HELD
In TRUST FOR PENSION Benefits $ 1,062,931,561 as of June 30th 1998



SUMMARY OF FUNDING POSITION


VALUATION DATE 12/31/1998
INTEREST Rate 8.0%
SALARY Scale 5.75%

ACTUARIAL
ACCRUED 873,624,000 As of 12/31/98
LIABILITY

ACTUARIAL
VALUE 799,539,000 As of 12/31/98

Unfunded
ACTUARIAL
ACCRUED 74,085,000
Liability

Funded
Ratio 91.5%

The data below was taken from the 20th edition of the Public Retirement Systems Annual Report

for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1998

Figure 17

Summary of Average Yields ...............................................1996,1997,1998

Defined Benefit Systems .......................................................Avg. Avg. Avg.

Counties .......................................................................................Yield, Yield, Yield

Santa Barbara County Employees’ Retirement Association...................14.7% 20.3% 19.3%

SUMMARY OF DEFINED BENEFIT PLANS........1998......

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY EMPLOYEES' RETIREMENT SYSTEM

.............Funded ratio …..Benefits per beneficiary........assets per member

..................91.5 …......... …....... 15,715............................168,924................ 















STATEMENT OF PLAN NET ASSETS
AS OF JUNE 30, 1999

TOTAL ASSETS $ 1,094,120,544 BEGINNING OF THE YEAR NET ASSETS HELD
NET ASSETS AVAILABLE FOR BENEFITS $ 1,062,931,561 AS OF June 30th 1999


 BENEFITS  In Trust $ 888,876,118 As of June 30th 1998

The END Of YEAR NET ASSETS HELD
In TRUST FOR PENSION Benefits $ 1,062,931,561 as of June 30th 1999



SUMMARY OF FUNDING POSITION


VALUATION DATE 12/31/1999
INTEREST Rate 8.0%
SALARY Scale 5.75%

ACTUARIAL
ACCRUED 873,624,000 As of 12/31/99
LIABILITY

ACTUARIAL
VALUE 799,539,000 As of 12/31/99

Unfunded
ACTUARIAL
ACCRUED 74,085,000
Liability

Funded
Ratio 98.7%

The data below was taken from the 21st edition of the Public Retirement Systems Annual Report

for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1999

Figure 17

Summary of Average Yields ...............................................1997,1998,1999

Defined Benefit Systems .......................................................Avg. Avg. Avg.

Counties .......................................................................................Yield, Yield, Yield

Santa Barbara County Employees’ Retirement Association...................20.3% 19.3% 10.9%

SUMMARY OF DEFINED BENEFIT PLANS........1999......

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY EMPLOYEES' RETIREMENT SYSTEM

.............Funded ratio …..Benefits per beneficiary........assets per member

..................98.7 …......... …....... 16,797............................180,339................