Life Insurers May Manage Public Pensions Under Hatch Bill

State and local governments in the U.S. would be permitted to turn their retirement systems over to life insurers under a Senate bill that seeks to diminish public-pension deficits.

Voluntary participation by states and municipalities would reduce the threat of insolvency by removing the possibility of pension-plan underfunding, according to Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee and author of the bill introduced today. The measure, which would alter federal tax law, also would permit changes in nongovernment retirement plans to boost employee savings at small and mid-size companies.