Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement

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Upcoming Commission Meetings

Tuesday, April 7, 2026, 5:30 PM, Room G15 in the State Capitol Building. (Agenda & Meeting Materials)

Tuesday, April 14, 2026, 5:30 PM, Room G15 in the State Capitol Building. (Agenda to be determinded.)

For meetings earlier this biennium, go to 2025-2026 meetings.

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LCPR News

Probation Officers and 911 Telecommunicators Pension Plans Work Group

The 2025 Omnibus Pension and Retirement Bill (Laws 2025, Chapter 37, Article 17) requires LCPR staff to convene a work group for the purpose of determining the terms and conditions of new pension plans to be established for probation officers and 911 telecommunicators and recommending legislation to the LCPR.

The Work Group, co-chaired by Anne Finn and Scott Vadnais, held nine meetings, concluding on November 25. On behalf of the co-chairs, LCPR staff submitted the Work Group’s report to the Commission on February 12, 2026. The report consists of a 32-page report and a 81-page appendix, and recommends the establishment of a new PERA-administered pension plan for probation officers and 911 telecommunicators who are local government employees, and a new subplan within the MSRS General Plan for probation officers and 911 telecommunicators who are state employees.

LCPR staff prepared three bills that implement the recommendations of the Work Group:

•   LCPR26-013: establishes the Probation and Telecommunicator Retirement Subplan administered by MSRS.
•   LCPR26-017: establishes the Local Government Probation and Telecommunicator Retirement Plan administered by PERA.
•   LCPR26-012: technical changes to incorporate references to the new PERA Local Government Probation and Telecommunicator Retirement Plan. This bill is only effective upon the enactment of LCPR26-017.

The Work Group’s recommendations also included a new appendix to the Standards for Actuarial Work.

Agendas and materials for the meetings are available here. Recordings of the meetings are available at this YouTube link.

Firefighter relief associations no longer have to file an annual Investment Business Recipient Disclosure form!

Beginning August 1, 2025, firefighter relief associations no longer need to file the “Investment Business Recipient Disclosure Form” with the LCPR executive director. See Chapter 37, Article 8, Section 2. Previous filings for relief associations can be found at the Legislative Reference Library.

The 2025 Omnibus Pension and Retirement Bill

The bill was signed into law by the Governor on Friday, May 23, 2025, as Laws 2025, Chapter 37. Links to the staff summaries, source bills, and legislative history are available on the 2025 Omnibus Pension and Retirement Bill page.

See previous LCPR News articles

Minnesota News

Private equity investments and SBI

Earlier this month, the Minnesota Center for Fiscal Excellence published a “Fiscal Focus” titled “Public Funds, Private Deals: Evaluating State Oversight and Governance of Private Equity Investments.” This 16-page report is a “must-read” for anyone interested in the SBI’s investment of approximately 17% of the nearly $150 billion in assets in its portfolio, most of which fund pensions for the state’s public employees. As stated in the summary, the report:

examines the current state of the private equity industry, the governance and transparency challenges inherent to this asset class, and Minnesota’s response to them. …Taken together, Minnesota’s governance of private equity investments reflects many strengths. SBI has built a robust oversight and management infrastructure, employs internal controls and best practices to assess reported asset values, actively manages fees and expenses, and has worked to integrate private equity’s unconventional performance measures into its total fund performance scorecard.

Yet on key matters of public disclosure, SBI falls short of best practice. Most notably, fee and expense data deemed “public at all times” under state statute are not disclosed in fund level returns. More importantly, current performance reporting does not answer the central question of all pension stakeholders: Do private equity returns justify their considerably greater expense compared to public market investments available at a fraction of the cost? We recommend that SBI publicly disclose supplemental analyses commonly used by scholars and industry practitioners to address this issue.

See previous Minnesota News articles

National News and Publications

Are retirement plans for public employees achieving the goal of an 80% income replacement rate in retirement?

Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA) recently published a report assessing the success of state retirement programs in achieving the desired 80% income replacement target in retirement. TIAA examined which types of retirement plans—defined benefit, defined contribution, cash balance, or hybrid—most often reach that benchmark. TIAA found that that, regardless of plan design, without Social Security coverage, public sector employees will generally not achieve 80% income replacement in retirement, potentially a concern for the employees covered by the roughly 20% of state retirement plans that are not coordinated with Social Security. Read the full report here.

LCPR Staff Memo: Social Security Fairness Act

Historically, two federal laws—the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO)—reduced Social Security benefits for people who received a pension for work on which they did not pay Social Security taxes. However, the Social Security Fairness Act, which was signed into law on January 5, 2025, repealed the WEP and GPO. Due to the repeal, the Social Security Administration began issuing retroactive benefit payments and increasing monthly payments for retirees previously affected by the WEP and GPO. For more information on the background of the WEP and GPO and impact of the Social Security Fairness Act, see the LCPR Staff Memo on the Social Security Fairness Act.

2025 NASRA Fast Facts & Helpful Resources on State and Local Government Retirement Systems

NASRA recently released an updated infographic detailing the significant economic footprint of of public retirement systems across the United States for 2025. See the 2025 infographic...

NASRA Report: Recent Changes to COLAs

Rising prices have been a concern for many retirees in recent years as inflation reached its highest levels in decades (see CPI-U data below). Cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) are intended to protect retirement benefits from a loss of purchasing power due to inflation. What changes have states made to COLAs provided by public pension plans during this period of high inflation? See the recent NASRA issue brief on COLAs, published in August 2025, for more information.

Issue in Brief on the Financial Outlook of Social Security

The Center for Retirement Research (CRR) at Boston College published an Issue in Brief on the financial outlook of social security. This brief analyzes the projected 75-year deficit for Social Security. The brief concludes that “Social Security is facing a long-term financing shortfall that equals about 1 percent of GDP. The changes required to fix the system are well within the bounds of fluctuations in spending on other pro¬grams in the past. Moreover, action needs to be taken before the OASI trust fund is depleted in 2033 to avoid a precipitous cut in benefits.” See the recent CRR Issue in Brief on Social Security, published in July 2025, for more information.

2023-24 Wisconsin Comparitive Study of Major Public Employee Retirement Systems

The study compares significant features and retirement benefits of 87 major state and local public retirement systems for general employees and teachers in the United States. The Wisconsin Legislative Council has prepared similar studies nearly every two years since 1982. Read the 2023-24 report...

See previous National News articles

Secure Choice News and Publications

Secure Choice Retirement Board of Directors Annual Report

The Board of Directors of the Secure Choice Retirement Program has issued its first annual report required under Minnesota Statutes, Section 187.08, Subd. 8. The report provides data on program outcomes, participant enrollment, employer participation, opt‑outs, plan expenses, progress toward savings goals, program impact on state safety‑net programs, and any penalties or enforcement actions.

Click here to view the 2026 report.

Opening on the Board of Directors of the Secure Choice Program

The Minnesota Secure Choice Retirement Program Board of Directors consists of three members appointed by the Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement (LCPR), two members appointed by the Governor’s office, and the executive directors of the Minnesota State Retirement System (MSRS) and the State Board of Investment (SBI). The incumbent in one of the LCPR-appointed seats, Cynthia Geiwitz, will be leaving at the end of her term in January 2026. By statute, this board seat must be filled by an executive or operations manager with substantial experience in record-keeping 401(k) plans.

If you satisfy this criteria, please consider applying for this open board seat. For more information on the Board and the Program and to apply for the open seat, please see the information at the links on the Secure Choice Program and Board of Directors page on the Secretary of State’s website for boards and commissions. The open position is described in the drop-down list under “Open Positions.” Please note that creating an account is required, and the materials you submit may be publicly available. If you have questions about the position or completing the application, please contact any member of the LCPR staff.

In addition to the vacancy detailed above, there is an open board seat designated for a small business owner or executive, to be appointed by the Governor's office. Interested individuals are encouraged to review the position description and apply via the Secretary of State's website.

Executive Director Announcement

At its meeting on September 24th, the Secure Choice board of directors appointed Chad Roberts as Executive Director. Chad’s career includes positions in law enforcement and public administration, most recently as the Deputy Executive Director and Chief Retirement Officer for the State of North Dakota Retirement & Investment Office. He begins as Executive Director for Secure Choice on November 3rd, 2025. Chad will assume the duties that have been handled during the past year by Interim Executive Director, Dave Bergstrom.

Minnesota Secure Choice Partnership with Colorado's SecureSavings

At its meeting on June 17th, the Secure Choice board of directors approved a partnership with Colorado’s SecureSavings Program. Partnering with an established state program is anticipated to lower start-up costs and participant fees and facilitate the sharing of best practices.

On December 2, 2025, the Colorado Department of the Treasury issued a press release on the partnership between the Colorado SecureSavings Program and Minnesota Secure Choice Retirement Program. You can read the full press release here.

State auto-IRA programs gain steam as interstate pact, public support grow. (Pensions & Investments, 5/17/2024)

"More than 3 in 4 Americans (77%) agree that state-facilitated retirement savings programs are a good idea...In addition, the overwhelming majority of Americans (82%) also say they would participate in state-facilitated programs, up from 75% in 2020..." Read more...

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U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

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