Dan Puplava Weighs in on Efforts to Improve Teacher Pensions

PHILADELPHIA, PA, October 22, 2012

Public school teachers are some of the most important, and perpetually undervalued, members of society. They work long hours and perform difficult tasks, all in the interest of empowering and enlightening young people, helping them to unlock their full potential and prepare for prosperous futures. Despite the important position that educators play in American society, some municipalities struggle to adequately provide for those educators, with many states and school districts fumbling for ways in which to improve teacher pensions. Policymakers in the State of Illinois are currently tackling this very problem--and their efforts have won the attention of Dan Puplava.

According to a recent news report, the head of Illinois' largest pension plan has signaled that more than 360,000 teachers and retirees will have their cost-of-living benefits cut, as a way of addressing the looming gaps in promised pensions and in the available funds. These cost-of-living modifications will ideally be made so as to offer minimal impact to the oldest retirees, as well as those with the lowest incomes.

The question of how to provide for educators in their retirement years is a familiar one, particularly for financial professionals like Dan Puplava. Since 1996, Puplava has worked with the San Diego County Office of Education to provide feasible retirement planning options for the area's public educators. Puplava has responded to the news out of Chicago with a new statement to the press.

"More and more state teacher pension funds are not living up to the guarantees that they have been built on," says Dan Puplava, in his press statement. "If you look throughout the U.S., you will find that the defined benefit pension plans for teachers are underfunded and cannot meet future needs because of poor investment returns, mismanagement, increases in pension benefits made to them in the past, or a combination of all of these factors."

Puplava continues with a prediction. "Look for big changes in defined pension programs for teachers in the coming years," he advises. "It is my belief that the reduction of benefits for most state and defined benefit plans has only just begun. You take another big downturn in the market and most of these state pension plans will be forced to make drastic cuts."

Currently, Dan Puplava provides workshops and seminars to public employees in the San Diego area, helping them to improve their own financial planning capacities.

ABOUT:

Dan Puplava is a veteran of the financial services profession, where he has served as a business columnist, a life insurance advisor, and more. Mr. Puplava was hired by the San Diego County Office of Education in 1996 to develop, design and market a retirement planning program for public school teachers. During this endeavor he developed and designed a new educational delivery system for teachers approaching their retirement, providing innovative methods for ensuring that the region's educators were able to plan for stable and secure retirements. He currently provides seminars and workshops to teachers and other government employees throughout the area, offering them solutions for how they can plan for their own financially feasible futures.

Website: http://danpuplava.org