The fundamental financial objective of a public employee defined benefit pension plan is to fund the long-term cost of benefits promised to the plan participants. In order to assure that pension benefits will remain sustainable, the governmental plan sponsor should accumulate adequate resources for future benefit payments in a systematic and disciplined manner during the active service life of the benefitting employees. In pursuit of this objective, the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF) has adopted a funding policy targeting a 100 percent funded ratio.