A distant view shows a mountainous landscape with sloping peaks, green trees in the foreground, and a cloudy sky above.


<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Colorado PERA Board of Trustees met in Denver on Friday, November&nbsp;21 for its final regularly scheduled meeting of the year.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Trustees voted to approve PERA’s 2026 operating budget, set the interest rate for member accounts,&nbsp;discussed the upcoming legislative session, and more.&nbsp;Additional&nbsp;details, including meeting materials and a recording of the livestream,&nbsp;are available on the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.copera.org/about/board-and-leadership/board-meeting-archive" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Board Meeting Archive</a>&nbsp;page.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<h2 style="color:#000000;" class="wp-block-heading has-black-color has-text-color has-medium-font-size">Investment consultant decision&nbsp;</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Earlier this year, the Board directed staff to&nbsp;request proposals from investment consulting firms as part of its regular review of third-party service providers.&nbsp;The Board’s Investment Committee interviewed three firms and&nbsp;the full Board&nbsp;<a href="https://www.copera.org/news/pera-board-retains-aon-as-investment-consultant" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">voted to retain&nbsp;Aon</a>,&nbsp;its&nbsp;current investment consultant.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Board&nbsp;is responsible for&nbsp;overseeing PERA’s investment program and&nbsp;utilizes&nbsp;an investment consultant to provide research, analysis, and advice in areas such as investment strategy, asset allocation, and fund performance. The investment consultant also conducts periodic&nbsp;<a href="https://www.copera.org/pera-on-the-issues/asset-liability-study-a-guide-to-building-a-strategic-portfolio" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">asset/liability analysis</a>&nbsp;that informs PERA’s strategic asset allocation, performance benchmarks, and assumed rate of return.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 style="color:#000000;" class="wp-block-heading has-black-color has-text-color has-medium-font-size">Strategic plan update&nbsp;</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">PERA CEO/Executive Director Andrew Roth and&nbsp;Director of Strategy Annalise Anderson&nbsp;provided an update to the&nbsp;Board on the organization’s three-year strategic plan.&nbsp;As the first year under the plan winds down, Roth and Anderson said they expect to&nbsp;complete 100% of the&nbsp;plan’s&nbsp;measures and targets for 2025.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">One of the main goals included in the plan is improving the customer and stakeholder experience, and&nbsp;Roth&nbsp;detailed&nbsp;much of&nbsp;the work he’s done over the past year, including meeting with lawmakers,&nbsp;holding&nbsp;in-person&nbsp;<a href="https://copera.org/about/pera-town-hall" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Town Halls</a>&nbsp;to connect with members and retirees&nbsp;in Fort Collins and Pueblo, and increasing outreach to PERA-affiliated employers.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Leaders will&nbsp;begin working on an implementation plan for year&nbsp;two&nbsp;to help guide&nbsp;staff’s work&nbsp;throughout 2026, with regular updates continuing at future Board meetings.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 style="color:#000000;" class="wp-block-heading has-black-color has-text-color has-medium-font-size">Upcoming legislative session&nbsp;</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Director of Public and Government Affairs Michael Steppat joined Roth to&nbsp;discuss the 2026 legislative session and some of the issues they expect&nbsp;state&nbsp;lawmakers to tackle.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Similar to&nbsp;the 2025 session, legislators&nbsp;will face the challenging task of cutting&nbsp;hundreds of millions in&nbsp;state&nbsp;spending to pass a balanced budget.&nbsp;While that&nbsp;won’t&nbsp;happen until the spring, Gov. Jared&nbsp;Polis&nbsp;has already&nbsp;submitted&nbsp;his proposed budget. The governor’s proposal&nbsp;calls for privatizing the state’s&nbsp;worker compensation insurance provider, Pinnacol Assurance, and reducing the&nbsp;amortization equalization disbursement (AED), a contribution that employers make to PERA, for employers in the State Division.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If Pinnacol were to become a private entity, it would have to disaffiliate from PERA and&nbsp;pay its&nbsp;portion&nbsp;of DB Plan liabilities, which are estimated to be&nbsp;approximately $300 million.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The proposed 1% reduction in the&nbsp;AED is estimated to reduce contributions to PERA by about $40 million over the next two years, adding up to about $180 million by the time PERA reaches full funding in 2048.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Steppat and Roth also discussed two legislative proposals that, if introduced and passed, could help&nbsp;reduce the likelihood of triggering automatic adjustments to PERA contributions and retiree annual increases in future years under the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.copera.org/automatic-adjustment-provision" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Automatic Adjustment Provision</a>.&nbsp;Those proposals include providing PERA flexibility to&nbsp;allocate&nbsp;the&nbsp;State’s annual $225 million direct distribution&nbsp;to whichever division trust funds&nbsp;would help minimize the likelihood of&nbsp;triggering automatic&nbsp;adjustments and&nbsp;reallocating a&nbsp;portion&nbsp;of employers’ health care trust fund contributions to help pay off&nbsp;pension&nbsp;liabilities.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The 2026 legislative session begins&nbsp;on January 14, and&nbsp;<em>PERA On&nbsp;The&nbsp;Issues</em>&nbsp;will be closely tracking all PERA-related bills throughout the session.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 style="color:#000000;" class="wp-block-heading has-black-color has-text-color has-medium-font-size">2026 Board election&nbsp;</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Two seats on the Board will be up for election in 2026: A School Division seat and a State Division seat to be filled by an employee of an institution of higher education.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Candidacy for the two open seats will open in early January, and active members in the School and State divisions will receive ballots in May.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 style="color:#000000;" class="wp-block-heading has-black-color has-text-color has-medium-font-size">Member contribution interest rate&nbsp;</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Each November, the Board&nbsp;is responsible for&nbsp;setting&nbsp;the interest rate that applies to PERA DB Plan accounts for the upcoming year.&nbsp;If a PERA member <a href="https://copera.org/welcome-pera-members/life-and-job-changes/leaving-employment" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">leaves PERA-covered employment</a> and requests a refund of their&nbsp;DB Plan&nbsp;account, they receive their contributions, the interest earned on that balance&nbsp;(compounded annually), and any applicable employer match. If that member keeps their account with PERA, the balance will continue to&nbsp;accrue&nbsp;interest&nbsp;and the member has multiple options upon reaching retirement eligibility, including choosing a lifetime monthly benefit.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Board’s policy evaluates the interest rate as a&nbsp;component&nbsp;of members’ overall retirement benefit. After discussing the issue, Trustees voted to keep the interest rate at 3 percent for 2026.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 style="color:#000000;" class="wp-block-heading has-black-color has-text-color has-medium-font-size">2026 actuarial audit&nbsp;</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In 2026, the Board will&nbsp;hire an outside firm to conduct its periodic actuarial audit.&nbsp;Such audits have been part of the Board’s governance practices since the 1980s, with audits taking place every four or five years. With the passage of Senate&nbsp;Bill 28 in 2025, the Board is now required by law to conduct actuarial audits every four years. The last audit took place in 2022.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The&nbsp;goal&nbsp;of the actuarial audit is to&nbsp;receive an independent assessment of PERA’s actuarial methods and assumptions&nbsp;and&nbsp;attempt&nbsp;to&nbsp;replicate the&nbsp;calculations of the Board’s&nbsp;actuarial&nbsp;consultant, Segal.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Staff will conduct a search for a third-party&nbsp;firm to conduct the audit in early 2026, with results expected by the Board’s November 2026 meeting.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 style="color:#000000;" class="wp-block-heading has-black-color has-text-color has-medium-font-size">2026 meeting dates&nbsp;</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Board concluded its business with a look at&nbsp;2026’s meeting calendar. The following Board meetings are scheduled for the year:&nbsp;</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>January 23&nbsp;</li>
</ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>March 20&nbsp;</li>
</ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>June 25&nbsp;</li>
</ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>September 23-26 (planning session and meeting)&nbsp;</li>
</ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>November 20&nbsp;</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">For more information on Board meetings, including recordings and meeting materials, visit&nbsp;the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.copera.org/about/board-and-leadership" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Board and Leadership</a>&nbsp;page.&nbsp;</p>


Conference room with empty chairs, microphones, and flags. Text states "PERA Board of Trustees Meeting, November 21, 2025" on the wall.

PERA Board Approves Interest Rate, Discusses Upcoming Legislative Session at November 2025 Meeting