DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A report shows Iowa’s largest public employee pension fund has stabilized thanks to solid investment returns but still has $6.8 billion in unfunded liabilities. The Des Moines Register reports that study released Thursday on the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System predicts that the system’s long-term unfunded liabilities will likely grow to $7 billion over the next five years.
The study predicts the unfunded liabilities will then begin to gradually decline and fully disappear by 2046.

Brent Banister is the chief pension actuary at Cavanaugh Macdonald Consulting, LLC, which prepared the report. He says there’s no concern that the system’s retirees won’t get their pension checks. The pension fund has 360,000 members, including current, former and retired employees of state government, cities, counties, school districts and other government agencies.