Sources of data for 13th check story

December 21, 2013

Much of the information in the table comes from Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFRs) for 1997-2012 on the website of the Office of Retirement Systems: SERS and MPSERS.

Number of retirees: Number of retirees ("Retirant and Beneficiary Data - Rolls End of Year") for MPSERS and SERS for 1982-1986 are from actuarial valuations found in the state library. I didn't get copies.

Number of retirees for 1987 and after come the "Schedule of Changes in the Retirement Rolls" in the Actuarial Valuation Data section in the 1997-2012 CAFRs. They each contain 10 years of history for this item, so the 1997 CAFR contains figures going back to 1988. The figures for 1987 were calculated by subtracting the 1988 "Added to Rolls" to the "Rolls-End of Year" and adding "Removed from Rolls".

13th check payouts: Payout information for years prior to 1997 were provided to me in 2008 by ORS in response to a FOIA request. I posted a story about it on my website. I no longer have those documents.

Payout information for 1997-2012 are in the CAFRs on the websites under "Schedule of Benefit Expenses by Type" in the Statistical Section. Example: Page 80 from the 2004 MPSERS CAFR.

Investment earnings %: Investment earnings rate ("Yield on Average Book Value") for 1982-1986 are from actuarial valuations found in the state library. I didn't get copies.

Investment earnings rate for SERS 1987-1996 are from documents provided by DTMB in November 2013; for 1993-1996, they were calculated by dividing earnings for the current year by market value of assets for the previous year.

Investment earnings rate for MPSERS 1987-1996 were calculated by dividing earnings for the current year by market value of assets for the previous year - both figures from documents provided by DTMB.

Investment earnings rates for 1997-2012 are in the CAFRs under "Asset Allocation" in the Investment Section.