“The [State Retirement System’s] Senior Management team worried about the general morale in the office. Physical and budgetary constraints had forced an early decision not to increase staff for the project. The Executive Director feared he would not be able to keep up with daily operations, and a growing sense of frustration threatened the retention of capable staff members. The two programmers who had created SRS’ legacy system were only able to participate on a part-time basis. The project goal the SRS had worked so hard to achieve seemed at risk. It was clear something had to be done.” -Sagitec Case Study on Change Management in IT Projects

Over the last 25 years, the pendulum in the public pension industry has been swinging from Defined Benefit (DB) plans to Defined Contribution (DC) plans. Powerful advocates in the government and financial sectors have proclaimed that DC plans are the key to reforming a broken pension industry, regardless of the state of the economy. In a bear market, DB plans are unsustainable they say. They put state and local agencies on the path to inevitable failure. On the other hand, in a bull market, DC plans significantly outperform DB plans. Why wouldn’t a pension fund want to follow the DC model?

As we look toward the future, there are events and activities driving or amplifying change -- and there are reactions to those amplifiers that take the shape of emerging trends. In the video below, Sagitec's Chief Learning and Communications Officer, Stephanie Schrankler, examines 5 catalysts and 10 trends that are impacting pension educators and communicators.