The Office of the State Actuary gave its annual update to the Select Committee on Pension Policy, reviewing staffing, core functions and a packed 2025 project slate. Lisa Wan, of the Office of the State Actuary, presented the briefing.
The update matters because the office produces actuarial valuations and fiscal notes used by multiple state pension plans, the Legislature and executive branch agencies.
Wan described OSA as "a small, nonpartisan legislative agency" and outlined who the office serves and what it does. When fully staffed in about three weeks, she said, OSA will have 19 full-time positions, a little over half of them certified actuaries, plus three policy and research analysts, one operations analyst and five administrative staff.
Wan told the committee the office performs valuations, funding analysis, assumption setting and fiscal-note pricing for the Department of Retirement Systems, the State Investment Board and multiple retirement plans including the Guaranteed Education Tuition Plan and higher-education supplemental plans. She said OSA also manages external actuarial services for the WA Cares Fund and makes solvency recommendations.
For 2025, Wan listed major projects including the biennial economic experience study and report on financial condition (to recommend economic assumptions), a demographic experience study that occurs every five to six years, and an OSA actuarial report on the WA Cares Fund. She said the demographic study requires roughly 2,500 hours of work and creates scheduling pressure because most OSA work is annual or biennial.
The office is also pursuing multiyear internal projects: records and data management and knowledge-management efforts to capture institutional knowledge for expected retirements. Wan said succession planning, professional development and client-feedback measures are part of OSA’s three-year strategic plan.
OSA uses formal performance measures for fiscal notes, actuarial reports, financial management, human-resources metrics and client satisfaction; results are published in the office’s performance reports, she said. Wan closed by saying the office remains committed to “excellent service” despite the heavy 2025 workload.
No committee action was requested or taken on the OSA update; the presentation was educational and followed by questions from members.