[yompers888]

It's very common (a) for 7% to be an unrealistic return for pensions, given their allocations; and (b) for pensions funds to estimate even higher (8 or 9%) growth rates.

I can't speak to the majority of pensions funds, but there are State funds that assume 8.5% returns while having 50-60% of the fund in bonds. Those are the Minnesota numbers, and they tend to be pretty good for a State. They're ~75% funded, and that makes them 19th best in the country. If you face the reality that their assumptions are insane, then you have the wrestle with more realistic projections of how much they've really funded.