Fund Quiz 2, 24 questions about your Permanent Fund

The information to help you answer these questions can be found on apfc.org or in An Alaskan's Guide to the Permanent Fund (pdf).
 

1. How does the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation maximize the value of the Permanent Fund?

A By making prudent, long-term investments in a diversified portfolio
B By keeping the Fund in the bank earning a steady,dependable rate of interest
C By investing most of the Fund in promising high-tech stocks and hedge funds

2. What is the job of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation?

A To tell the Governor how to invest the Permanent Fund
B To give out dividends every year to all qualified Alaskans
C To manage the Permanent Fund investments

3. Who are the beneficiaries of the Permanent Fund?

A People born in Alaska before 1974
B People who fill out their dividend applications correctly
C Current and future generations of Alaskans

4. Which scenario is likely to happen in Alaska's future?
A Alaska's oil revenues will decline because oil is a non-renewable resource
B Permanent Fund income increases as the amount of assets under investment increases
C Both of the above

5. What are the part/s of the Permanent Fund?
A There is only one part of the Fund: the principal, which cannot be spent.
B The Permanent Fund is comprised of 100% earnings from investments
C The principal and the earnings reserve

6. Who decides how to spend Permanent Fund earnings?
A The Legislature
B The voters, in a special election
C The Permanent Fund Board of Trustees

7. How does money get into the Permanent Fund principal?
A Occasionally, the Legislature puts money from the Fund earnings into Fund principal.
B Every year, the Legislature adds money from Fund earnings into Fund principal to offset inflation.
C From oil revenue the state receives
D If the value of Fund investments increases, that increase goes into principal
E All of the above

8. How does money get into the Permanent Fund earnings?
A Interest and profits from sales are earned on bond investments
B Dividends and profits from sales are earned on stock investments
C Rent and profits from sales are earned on real estate investments
D All of the above

9. Who administers the Permanent Fund Dividend program?
A The Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation
B The Dividend Division in the Department of Revenue
C A board comprised of concerned citizens

10. How much money is currently in the Permanent Fund principal?
A Between $5 and $10 billion
B Between $35and $40 billion
C None; it is all paid out in dividends each year

11. How much money is currently in the entire Permanent Fund?
A There is no way of knowing this figure
B Between $35 and $45 billion
C $597,340,000,000,000,000.00

12. Which is the Fund's largest asset class?
A Stocks
B Real estate
C Bonds
D Alternative investments, such as hedge funds

13. What has Permanent Fund Board of Trustees proposed to protect, improve and modernize the Fund?
A The Mackie Plan
B Alternative investments, such as hedge funds
C Percent of Market Value (POMV) spending limit

14. Which will be most likely to add the most money to Fund principal in the future?
A Oil/mineral revenues
B Annual inflation proofing of the oil/mineral revenue deposits into the fund
C Special appropriations from the Legislature into the fund
D Appreciation of fund investments

15. Where does the Legislature get money for special appropriations to Fund principal?
A By selling state surplus equiptment
B From any earnings reserve money left over after dividends and inflation proofing
C From the federal government

16. If an Alaskan had collected every PFD since 1982, about how much money would she or he have received after the 2010 dividend?
A $32,200
B $322,000
C $3,220
 

17. Who or what determines how big the dividends will be each year?
A The Permanent Fund Board of Trustees
B The Alaska Constitution
C A formula in state law, which was passed by the State Legislature

18. Why does the Legislature inflation proof the Fund?
A To protect the purchasing power of the Fund
B To prevent the Fund from inflating too fast
C To prove that inflation exists

19. What is the earnings reserve account?
A Part of the Constitutional Budget Reserve
B The part of the Permanent Fund that is not principal
C The part of the Fund that cannot be spent
 

20. Who really owns the Permanent Fund?
A A group of private investors in New York City
B The state of Alaska
C The Trustees of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation

21. Where is the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation located?
A It is headquartered in Anchorage but has offices around the world.
B On Wall Street
C In Alaska's capital city, Juneau

22. How many states in the U.S. issue an annual dividend check to residents?
A Alaska only
B Texas, Oklahoma, Alaska, and Louisiana - the four "big oil" states
C All states do; but the money doesn't necessarily come from oil - it can come from farming, for example

23. What state's residents have the lowest overall taxes?
A Connecticut
B Alaska
C Vermont

24. How can students find out more about the Permanent Fund?
A Bookmark www.apfc.org
B Watch the news on TV, listen to radio news, read the newspaper
C Go to a meeting of the Fund's Board of Trustees
D Visit the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation office with my class
E All of the above