Under state law, the MET fund will be analyzed annually for actuarial soundness. The exact language of the legislation establishing the program states:
"The trust board shall annually evaluate and cause to be evaluated by a nationally recognized actuary the actuarial soundness of the trust and determine the additional assets needed, if any, to defray the obligations of the trust. If there are not funds sufficient to ensure the actuarial soundness of the trust as determined by the nationally recognized actuary, the trust shall adjust payments of subsequent purchasers to ensure its actuarial soundness. If there are insufficient numbers of new purchasers to ensure the actuarial soundness of a plan of the trust, the available assets of the trust attributable to the plan shall be immediately prorated among the then existing contracts, and these shares shall be applied, at the option of the person to whom the refund is payable or would be payable under the contract upon termination of the contract, either towards the purposes of the contract for a qualified beneficiary or disbursed to the person to whom the refund is payable or would be payable under the contract upon termination of the contract." [30]
Under this arrangement, each new generation of MET enrollees would bear the cost to keep the system operational, unless the required rate of return was achieved. Given such a scenario, MET resembles a scheme for the intergenerational transfer of income from new participants to those already enjoying the system's benefits. At least one proponent has argued as much, stating, "As a practical matter, tuition increases beyond the projected seven percent won't affect existing MET contract holders; those increases will be covered by later contract purchases." [31]