Final Actuarial Audit Reports Submitted by Bolton Partners, Inc. – Administrative Review of Actuarial Data

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Bolton Partners, Inc. (Bolton) was retained by the Comptroller to serve as the Independent Actuary under Section 96 of the New York City Charter and provide other services related to the review of the funding of the following five actuarial pension funds (collectively NYCRS or the Systems):

• New York City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS);
• Teachers’ Retirement System of the City of New York (TRS);
• Board of Education Retirement System of the City of New York (BERS);
• New York City Police Pension Fund (POLICE); and
• New York City Fire Pension Fund (FIRE).

Bolton was engaged to conduct two consecutive biennial actuarial engagements, encompassing the following:

• Biennial Contribution Audits of the computed employer contributions for each System in NYCRS for fiscal years 2016 and 2018 (including an audit of actuarial accrued liabilities and actuarial valuation of assets);
• Biennial Experience Studies for the periods ending June 30, 2015 and June 30, 2017, for each System in NYCRS;
• Two Administrative Reviews of the data gathering and maintenance practices of the Office of the Actuary (OA) and each System in NYCRS (one review corresponding with each Contribution Audit); and
• Two Independent Actuarial Statements (one for each engagement); Bolton as the independent actuarial auditor, will submit a statement that will briefly describe the scope of the entire engagement, will review the entire engagement and comment on the financial condition and financing progress and policies of each System, and certify that the Systems are being funded on a sound actuarial, financial, and legal basis.

This report constitutes the deliverable with respect to the Administrative Review for the First Engagement. The purpose of this report is to:

• Review the process of data gathering used in the annual actuarial valuations;
• Review the process of data gathering and transmission of results of benefit calculations/certifications that the OA performs for each of the Systems;
• Review the communications between the OA and each of the Systems related to the above items;
• Review the security of member data that is either stored by the Systems and the OA or transmitted between the Systems and the OA; and
• Make recommendations that improve the data collection process, the annual valuation process, and/or improve the security of member data related to storage and/or transmissions by the Systems and the OA.

Our investigation should be considered a Review and not an Audit of administrative procedures. An audit would require more in-depth and detailed exploration of procedures.