Public Pension Policy Analysis & Consulting
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Challenges in Pension Governance: A Case Study of the New Hampshire Retirement System
Kate McGovern, MPA, Ph.D.
The book depicts trustees, legislators and stakeholders in crisis. Transcripts and interviews give readers an inside view of a struggle to adhere to fiduciary duty in the face of relentless political pressure. Events in New Hampshire during the recession of 1991 were not unique; researchers found that a number of states sought to balance budgets by reducing pension contributions during that period. This study sets New Hampshire’s experience in the context of those findings as it portrays a system of pension governance under stress. The events in 1991-92 led to a $2.4 billion unfunded liability by 2007. As the impending retirement of the Baby Boomers coincides with a global financial crisis, the unfunded liability has reached $3.4 billion. This examination of the past may serve to inform the present, as the bill comes due.