Upcoming Commission Meeting
No meetings scheduled. The Executive Committee of the LCPR met on Thursday, May 14, 2026, at 8:30 AM — This meeting was held virtually and broadcast on the LCPR YouTube. See agenda and materials here.
For meetings earlier this biennium, go to 2025-2026 meetings.
Status of the 2026 Omnibus Pension and Retirement Bill
The bill was signed into law by the Governor on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, as Laws 2026, Chapter 106.
The bill was passed by the House on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, and by the Senate on Friday, May 15, 2026.
For more information on the 2026 Omnibus Pension and Retirement Bill, see the 2026 Omnibus Pension and Retirement Bill webpage, which includes links to staff summaries, source bills and amendments, and the legislative history.
LCPR News
Plan administrators and vendors of 403(b) or 457(b) plans no longer have to file annual fee and rate of return disclosure with the LCPR!
Minnesota Statutes, section 356.24, subdivision 3, paragraph (c), requires the plan administrator or vendor of a 403(b) tax-sheltered annuity or 457(b) deferred compensation plan to provide annual statements to participants about administrative and investment fees and rates of return for the prior one-, five-, and ten-year periods. Paragraph (c) also requires the plan administrator or vendor to file a copy of this statement with the executive director of the Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement.
The 2026 Omnibus Pension and Retirement bill eliminates the requirement to file the annual disclosure statement with the LCPR, effective May 20, 2026. See Chapter 106, Article 10. Plan administrators and vendors must continue to provide the annual fee and ROR statement to participants as required by Section 356.24, subdivision 3, paragraph (c), which is not changed in the 2026 pension bill.
New Pension Plans for Probation Officers and Public Safety Telecommunicators
The 2026 Omnibus Pension and Retirement bill (Laws 2026, Chapter 106, Articles 4-6) establishes the MSRS Probation and Telecommunicator Retirement Subplan and the PERA Local Government Probation and Telecommunicator Retirement Plan, effective January 1, 2027. The Articles in Chapter 106 that are relevant to the new subplan and plan are Articles 4 to 6. For an overview of the features of the new subplan and plan, see pages 5 to 8 in the Summary of HF4074, the Second Engrossment.
Information and materials related to the Probation Officers and 911 Telecommunicators Pension Plans Work Group, including the Work Group’s report and recommended legislation, are available here.
See previous LCPR News articles
Minnesota News
PTSD-Related Leave Rising Among Minnesota Firefighters
A recent Star Tribune article, published on May 14, 2026, details how PTSD‑related leaves have increased in the past year for firefighters in the Minneapolis Fire Department. The article notes:
- More firefighters out on leave has resulted in increased overtime costs and stretched resources. Currently, 30 firefighters, or 7% of the Minneapolis fire department, are on leave due to PTSD.
- The state (Staff background note: specifically, PERA) pays a disability pension that is at least 60% of salary tax-free for five years or until age 55, when the disability pension converts to a retirement pension.
- To help police officers and firefighters return to duty rather than take a disability pension, a law change in 2023 requires police officers and firefighters to participate in up to 32 weeks of mental health treatment before being approved for a disability pension. An account administered by the Department of Public Service reimburses cities and counties for the cost of the treatment and continued health insurance coverage during the leave. DPS reimbursed the Minneapolis Fire Department about $600,000 last year for that type of leave.
The concerns raised by the article echo concerns heard by the Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement during the 2026 session, resulting in the establishment of a work group to meet during the interim and address these concerns, especially because the DPS account is anticipated to run dry in 2028. The work group provision is Article 12, Section 2, of Laws 2026, Chapter 106, the 2026 omnibus pension and retirement bill.
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.
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...
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Minnesota Legislature
Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement