The Detroit Template: Pension Funds Grossly Underfunded

On July 18 2013, the city of Detroit officially filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 9. At $18 billion, this is the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.1 According to the current “proposal to creditors”2, the city’s pension plans have been chronically underfunded and the gap between the plan’s assets and liabilities now stands at approximately $3.5 billion. Additionally, the value of unfunded “other post-employment benefits” (OPEB) such as life insurance, health care, etc., now reaches $5.7 billion. There is thus a $9.2 billion gap between the total assets and the liabilities of Detroit’s pension and benefits system (Table 1 below).

According to...