From Public Pensions to Private Fortunes: How Working People’s Retirements Line Billionaire Pockets

This joint AFT/Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund report challenges the narrative that private equity reliably delivers superior returns for public pensions, showing instead that declining profitability, opaque valuation practices, and complex fee structures erode the benefits. It also includes empirical case studies (e.g. a Florida pension example) illustrating how many systems might have fared better by limiting private equity exposure.