Guide to the Martin E. Segal Company, Inc. The Retirement System of the City of New York: seven-part report and related papers,
1961-1964

In the fall of 1961, the Board of Estimate authorized Martin E. Segal Company, consultants and actuaries, to a review all aspects of New York City's retirement systems. At the time, New York's eighteen retirement plans covered more than 216,000 employees and had assets of three billion dollars.

The consultants' report analyzes five areas of concern: (1) the development and structure of the retirement systems; (2) a comparison with other retirement plans, public and private; (3) the actuarial basis of the systems; (4) the current administration of the system; and (5) recommendations for benefit changes. After months of study, it was concluded that (1) all of the strictly routine functions of the system should be brought together in a single centralized pension agency; (2) there should be a massive expansion in the use of electronic data processing; (3) separate boards of trustees should be maintained, retaining in full their quasi-judicial powers and appropriate staffs; (4) the basic retirement pension for full-career employees should be 50 percent of the last year's wages; (5) cost of living adjustments should protect retired workers from inflation.