New pension guidance (GASB 68) requires governmental entities to record their portion of an asset or liability, depending on whether the fund is over or underfunded, beginning with entities having a 06/30/15 year-end.  In addition to recording an asset or liability, the pension guidance requires organizations to record deferred inflows or outflows of resources related to actuarial assumptions and timing of actual pension contributions.   The new guidance also requires lengthy note disclosures regarding the plan and actuarial assumptions along with Required Supplementary Information consisting of schedules of historical pension activity.

Many entities in South Dakota participate in the South Dakota Retirement System (SDRS), including public schools, cities, counties, and the State of South Dakota.  These entities will utilize the SDRS actuarial valuation for necessary figures.  As of 06/30/14, the plan through SDRS is overfunded, thus requiring entities to record their proportionate share of an asset.

SDRS’ Schedule of Employer Allocations and Collective Pension Amounts are necessary for determining the calculation and can be obtained from their website at https://sdrs.sd.gov/employer/gasb/info.aspx.

Department of Legislative Audit (DLA) has provided a worksheet to aid in determining necessary journal entries, as well as financial statement disclosures, and can be obtained from their website at https://legislativeaudit.sd.gov/default.aspx.

Please contact Sara Brainard, Traci Hanson, or Shelley Goodrich with specific questions.