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At the March 10th meeting, SDCERS’ Board of Administration approved the June 30, 2022 actuarial valuations for its three plan sponsors. These valuations determine each plan sponsor’s Fiscal Year 2024 Actuarially Determined Contribution (“ADC”), which are expected to be paid on July 1, 2023.
The City’s ADC for Fiscal Year 2024, is $448.1 million. The valuation is a snapshot in time on June 30, 2022; the City’s active employees affected by Proposition B who retroactively joined the system on July 9, 2022 were not included in the valuation results. However, the SDCERS Board of Administration voted to include the City’s FY24 Normal Costs and the first year of the 20-year amortization of the liability shortfall for these same 3,200 members in the ADC due July 1, 2023.
The Port’s Fiscal Year 2024 ADC is $19.2 million, and the Airport’s is $4.96 million.
You can review all three June 30, 2022 valuations, as well as past years’ actuarial valuation reports, here.
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IMPORTANT: These changes only apply to (1) City of San Diego Members and (2) Port Safety Members who were hired after January 1, 2013.
New Member contribution rates went into effect on July 1, 2019 for all City of San Diego Members, and for Port Safety Members hired after January 1, 2013.
If you fall into one of these categories, you can view your new contribution rates by going to “Retirement Plan Summaries” and clicking on your employer and date of hire. Most Members will only notice a minor adjustment on their first July paycheck. These Member contributions are the mandatory pre-tax deductions on a Member’s biweekly paycheck that are deposited into the SDCERS Trust Fund, where they earn interest and eventually fund each Member’s individual pension. Contributions are calculated as a percentage of the Member’s pensionable salary. The percentage is determined according to the Member’s plan tier and age of entry into SDCERS. Contribution rates are adjusted by SDCERS’ Board as needed, based on actuarial assumptions and calculations provided by SDCERS’ actuary.
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At the January meeting, SDCERS' Board of Administration took another important step toward pension stability by voting to set minimum annual pension payments of the Unfunded Actuarial Liability (UAL) for the City of San Diego and the Port of San Diego.
This minimum payment is also referred to as a "floor," meaning even if the required annual payment is less than the "floor," that minimum amount must be paid each year. The UAL floor payment for the City was set at $275.5 million and $13.3 million for the Port. This is based on the June 30, 2018 actuarial valuations which set the payment amount for the fiscal 2020 payment to the retirement system.
The new policy increases benefit security and helps the pension fund reach full funding by 2037, several years earlier than anticipated.
The Board also voted to prospectively limit the long-term impacts of changes to the assumed rate of return (discount rate), retirement rates, and life expectancy assumptions, to a 20-year period from the previous 30-year period.
A video of the Board discussion and vote is available here.
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Important: These rate changes only apply to active City of San Diego employees, and Airport Authority and Unified Port District employees hired after 2013.
New contribution rates went into effect July 1, 2018 for City of San Diego members and Airport Authority and Unified Port District employees hired after 2013. Most members will note only a minor adjustment on their July paycheck.
These member contributions are the required pre-tax contributions to the SDCERS trust fund that are deducted from the members' bi-weekly paychecks. Contribution rates are determined by a member's plan tier and age of entry into SDCERS.
Contribution rates are based on actuarial assumptions and calculations provided by SDCERS' actuary, Cheiron.
To view the contribution rates from Cheiron's Actuarial Valuation for City of San Diego members, click here.
For Airport Authority members, click here.
For Port District members, click here. Learn More...
Important: These rate changes only apply to City of San Diego members of SDCERS; Unified Port District and Airport Authority members are not affected.
New contribution rates went into effect July 1, 2017 for City of San Diego members only. Most members will note only a minor adjustment on their July 28 paycheck.
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At its September 9th meeting, the SDCERS Board of Administration discussed an experience study from the system’s actuary that covered revised economic and demographic assumptions, associated cost implications, and funding alternatives. The Board voted to accept the findings of the experience study and the actuarial assumption recommendations of the actuary. A second and separate Board vote to modify the system’s current funding methodology and to smooth the volatility of future pension contributions did not pass; the vote was 6-4 and a majority of 7 votes was required for the proposal to pass.
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Contribution rates went into effect July 1, 2016 for City of San Diego members only. Most members will note only a minor adjustment. As PEPRA members, the San Diego Unified Port District and San Diego County Regional Airport Authority are not affected. Learn More...
At its January 8 meeting, the San Diego City Employees’ Retirement System (SDCERS) Board of Administration reviewed preliminary annual actuarial valuations as of June 30, 2015 for the City of San Diego, the San Diego Unified Port District and the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority. Learn More...
San Diego City Employees’ Retirement System (SDCERS) announced that strong investment returns lowered the City of San Diego’s annual payment to the pension system by $8 million.
The SDCERS Board of Administration reviewed preliminary annual actuarial valuations as of June 30, 2014 for the City of San Diego, the San Diego Unified Port District and the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority at its January 9 meeting. All three plan sponsors showed improvements in their pension plan funding ratios.
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The San Diego City Employees’ Retirement System (SDCERS) today released its annual actuarial valuations as of June 30, 2013 for the City of San Diego (City), the San Diego Unified Port District (Port) and the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority (Airport). Learn More...
At its June 28th meeting, the SDCERS Board of Administration discussed and voted on a revised June 30, 2012 Actuarial Valuation that was developed to reflect the 5-year freeze on pensionable pay agreements between the City and its six labor unions. Learn More...
The San Diego City Employees’ Retirement System (SDCERS) today released its annual actuarial Valuations for the City of San Diego, the San Diego Unified Port District and the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority for the year ended June 30, 2012. SDCERS' actuary, Cheiron, will present the Valuations to the SDCERS Board of Administration at its regularly scheduled meeting on Friday, January 18th. Learn More...
SDCERS' actuary, Cheiron, will be presenting the June 30, 2011 Actuarial Valuations for the City, Port and Airport to the SDCERS Board at its regularly scheduled meeting on Friday, January 20 in the SDCERS Board Room. Learn More...