<prompt> Human: My wife is still far from retirement 25-30 years. And, while it is certainly possible that her employmentemployer could change, currently she is in an extremely stable job working for the state of Minnesota she pays into the MSRS pension plan. Lately, there have been many headlines regarding pension plans on the verge of failure not for Minnesota, currently, however that could change?. What resources do I have to evaluate her plan? Im pretty financially illiterate, what red flags should we look for over the next few decades? If things do start to go south, what options do we have? Background: I have a separate 403b, and we both try to max out our rothIRAs every year. We take advantage of matching.  <response>: If I were you, I would expect approximately 75 of the promised benefit and plan accordingly. It seems virtually impossible that states could completely eliminate a pension benefit retroactively. Could it happen? Sure...just like the US could default on its debt or a massive war could wipe out modern economies. Its very difficult if not impossible to plan for risks that are extremely rare.That said, look at Detroit - pension benefits were slashed there. Cuts ranged from 5-20 depending on lots of factors. So figure a 25 cut is roughly the worst things can get based on available evidence. 