DES MOINES, IOWA (AP) -- In an effort to ensure that Iowa's largest public employees pension fund can pay monthly benefits to retirees, state officials are stockpiling more than $200 million in cash.
Julie Economaki is an Iowa Public Employees' Retirement System spokeswoman. She says under typical stock market conditions, IPERS would keep up to $30 million on hand to cover obligations to its 85,000 retirees.
She pointed to the crisis on Wall Street as the reason behind the move to put more money aside.
Between July 1 and September 30th, the Iowa pension fund lost an estimated $1.7 billion in assets, or about 7.6 percent. With October's stock market decline, those losses have almost certainly increased.
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