Rising pension costs are crippling state and local governments. Today Government Technology reports that North Carolina will use custom software to help forecast state pension costs and help protect the pensions of 850,000 employees.
The customized software from SAS — which the company says will be made available to all state pension systems — will be able to more efficiently track risks with current and new investments for North Carolina’s $72.8 billion pension portfolio, according to the vendor. The company said its software also will be able to provide more accurate expectations on ROI and volatility.
Although North Carolina has been able to continue to fund pension payments, the move to implement the software was motivated by the volatility in the market and fears about the future. The software is part of a two year $1.7 million dollar contract with SAS.
According to Government Technology, “The custom software suite includes risk and performance measurement models for fixed-income equity, private markets and hedge funds. It will generate reports and provide dashboards for pension fund portfolio management. In addition, the system includes “data management and workflow processes specific to pension fund assets, and integrates third-party benchmark and market data related to the pension,” according to the vendor. All portfolio and market data will be hosted in the company’s analytics lab.” This software will provide great features for North Carolina to plan in an uncertain market and help forecast costs to assist decision makers.
Does your state have any similar kind of software implemented? What have been the benefits? Challenges?