Industry News

On April 3, 2024, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) released its report, Pensions and Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs): Investment Issues. The report summarizes pension investment issues for state and local pensions, federal pensions, private sector pension plans, and IRAs. For each type of pension or retirement accounts, the report explains relevant federal authorities, federal oversight and administrative issues.

​In addition, the report identifies selected pension investment issues, which have been involved in recent legislative or regulatory activity. The intent is to provide information to help Congress understand existing legislative proposals and develop new legislative proposals. The report provides background information on pension investment issues and presents differences across sectors and types of plans. The report states, “Understanding the relevant authorities and administration of different types of pension plans and retirement accounts is crucial to untangling policy proposals to address pension investment issues.”

As an example, the report indicates that state and local pension plans are generally governed by state laws, contract law and/or state constitutions. They are also exempt from many (but not all) requirements under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), which covers most private sector pension plans. According to the report, lawmakers have been considering policy proposals to address pension investment issues for state and local pensions related to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing, alternative investments, geopolitical considerations, and diverse asset managers.

The report is available here.