California Pensions Are $500 Billion Short, Stanford Study Says

California’s three biggest pension funds are as much as $500 billion short of meeting future retiree benefits, a Stanford University report said.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest U.S. public pension fund; the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, the second-biggest, and the University of California Retirement System are understating their future liabilities by using projected rates of return that don’t properly account for investment risk, the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy said today.