Recap of PERA Board’s January 2026 Meeting

The PERA Board of Trustees met on Friday, January 23 for the first regularly scheduled meeting of 2026.

Topics of discussion included PERA’s strategic plan and implementation progress, ongoing modernization efforts, and the 2026 legislative session and PERA-related bills.

Additional details, including meeting materials and a recording of the livestream, are available on the Board Meeting Archive page. 

Strategic plan update

CEO/Executive Director Andrew Roth and Director of Strategy Annalise Anderson briefed Trustees on PERA’s progress toward implementing the organization’s three-year strategic plan.

2025 was the first year of work under the current plan, and staff accomplished 100% of all measures and targets that were included in the implementation plan for year one, Roth said.

For 2026, implementation will focus on building on the foundation put in place during 2025. That will include goals such as advancing data-driven decision making, continuing with modernization efforts, and building workforce resilience through staff development and succession planning.

Pension administration system modernization

Work continues on a long-term project to upgrade and replace many of the technology systems that enable the daily work of administering PERA benefits. That includes software and hardware related to managing member data, processing contributions, and paying benefits, among other functions.

Members of PERA’s leadership team, including Deputy Executive Director Sarah Wager, Chief Benefits Officer Patrick Lane, Chief Administrative Officer Jeremy Hill, and Chief Technology Officer Ryan Ericson updated Trustees on work completed so far and what’s ahead.

The project is still in an early phase, with much of the work focusing on assessing the current state of systems and data and establishing a roadmap and goals for the complicated, large-scale initiative. PERA has hired additional staff, including a Director of Modernization, to help with the project.

The modernization effort is expected to take many years to complete, and staff will continue to provide regular updates.

2026 legislative session

CEO/Executive Director Roth and Director of Public and Government Affairs Michael Steppat provided an update on the 2026 legislative session, which kicked off earlier this month.

At the time of the Board meeting, lawmakers had so far introduced three PERA-related bills: House Bill 1026 would make changes to PERA provisions related to purchasing service credit and increase access to PERAPlus plans, House Bill 1027 would allow executive directors of boards of cooperative services (BOCES) to return to work after retiring without a reduction in their PERA benefit, and House Bill 1062 would remove limits on state tax deductions for pension or annuity income.

Visit our legislation tracking article for the most recent information on these and any other PERA-related bills.

Steppat also briefed Trustees on other legislative proposals that may come up this session, including two options meant to reduce the likelihood of triggering the Automatic Adjustment Provision (AAP) that took effect with Senate Bill 200 in 2018. 

Those proposals include providing PERA flexibility to allocate the State’s annual $225 million direct distribution to whichever division trust funds would help minimize the likelihood of triggering automatic adjustments and redirecting a portion of employers’ health care trust fund contributions to instead help pay off pension liabilities.

READ MORE: What to Expect from Colorado’s 2026 Legislative Session

Market and portfolio update

Chief Investment Officer/Chief Operating Officer Amy C. McGarrity presented an overview of how financial markets fared in 2025. It was a positive year for stocks and fixed income investments, with global equities—particularly European and emerging markets equities—showing the strongest performance, McGarrity said.

While inflation remains slightly higher than the Federal Reserve’s target range, McGarrity said experts expect inflation to continue to normalize throughout 2026.

PERA does not yet have finalized investment performance data for the Defined Benefit Plan portfolio; that information will be available with the release of the 2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report in June.

Upcoming Board meetings

The Board’s regularly scheduled meetings for the rest of 2026 are:

• March 20
• June 25
• September 23-25 (planning session and meeting)
• November 20

For more information on Board meetings, including recordings and meeting materials, visit the Board and Leadership page.