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Accounting (GASB)

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), an independent organization that is a component of the Financial Accounting Foundation, establishes the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) for state and local governments in the U.S., including their retirement systems. GASB standards are not federal laws or regulations and the organization is not an enforcement authority. Compliance with GASB’s standards, however, is enforced through the statutes of many states and cities, as well as the audit process, when auditors render opinions on the fairness of financial statement presentations in conformity with GAAP.

Many state and local retirement systems publish annual comprehensive financial reports, in compliance with the Government Finance Officers Association's Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting Program. Such reports include investment and actuarial information in addition to GAAP-based financial statements on which an independent auditor expressed an unqualified opinion.

Beginning in 1994, GASB statements 25 and 27 provided accounting and reporting guidance for public retirement systems and public employers that sponsor a pension plan. GASB reviewed these statements beginning in 2006 and completed updated standards for implementation by retirement systems with a fiscal year ending after 6/15/2013 and by employers that sponsor a pension plan with a fiscal year ending after 6/15/2014. These new standards are Statement 67, Financial Report for Pension Plans, and Statement 68, Accounting and Financial Reporting for Pensions.

In addition to financial reporting, typical public retirement system accounting responsibilities include contribution accounting and reporting, internal accounting, investment accounting, and auditing.

Detailed GASB resources

GASB Statement 67, Financial Reporting for Pension Plans

  • GASB Statement No. 67 is a revision to Statement No. 25. Statement 67 requires defined benefit pension plans to prepare two financial statements - a statement of fiduciary net position and a statement of changes in fiduciary net position.

  • Summary of Statement 67

GASB Statement 68, Accounting and Financial Reporting for Pensions

  • GASB Statement No. 68 is a revision to Statement No. 27 and makes changes to the valuation of pension plan liabilities. The statement requires changes to the way liabilities are calculated for the long-term investment assumptions that can be used to discount them over time. GASB 68 also makes changes to the way annual pension expenses are calculated and reported.

  • Summary of Statement 68


 

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Become A Member

Becoming a member of NASRA offers a unique opportunity to join a community committed to the sound, efficient, and innovative stewardship of public retirement systems. Membership connects you with a network of professionals and experts, providing valuable insights into managing public retirement systems with a focus on sustainability and risk-averse strategies.

By joining NASRA, you gain the tools and resources to enhance the management of public retirement systems, ensuring their long-term success and reliability for generations to come.

What's New at NASRA: Government Spending Issue Brief

NASRA’s March 2026 update on government spending makes a basic but important point: public pension benefits are not paid out of a government’s day-to-day operating budget. They are paid from trust funds that employees and employers contribute to during an employee’s working years. Those trusts distribute more than $400 billion each year to retirees and beneficiaries in communities across the country. On a national basis, employer contributions to pension trusts in FY 2023 equaled 5.16 percent of direct general spending by state and local governments, which shows that pension contributions remain a limited share of overall public spending even though the level varies from one state to another. 
The brief also shows that pension costs should be viewed in the context of the changes governments have made over the past 15 years to strengthen plan funding. Following the 2008–09 market decline, nearly every state and many local governments adjusted contributions, benefits, or both to improve pension sustainability. More recent data show that employer contributions increased from FY 2022 to FY 2023, but pension spending as a share of total government spending remained broadly stable. The updated brief provides FY 2023 figures and also projects the aggregate pension spending rate for FY 2024, offering a useful snapshot of both current costs and the longer funding trend.