On the other side of the ledger, these investment managers are probably soliciting to manage their employee retirement funds as well as corporate pension assets of many companies whose shares they may vote.

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On April 17th, the Northern Mariana Islands public employee retirement system became the first U.S. public pension fund to seek bankruptcy protection.

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In addition to this, the days when an employee could count on the company pension and Social Security benefit to provide a decent retirement income have faded.

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Indeed, some public pension plans, including the country's largest (the California Public Employee Retirement System) are considering a downward revision of expected returns, which would increase the estimated funding gap.

FORBES

For his part, Mr Sanders would cut jobs in the city bureaucracy and would negotiate new pension deals with the public employees' unions, including raising the retirement age and the level of employee contributions.

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