The Virginia Retirement System is an independent

state agency A government agency or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government (bureaucracy) that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, s ...

that administers pension plans, retirement savings plans, and other benefits to

public employees The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

in the U.S. state of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. As of 2018, the agency ranks as the 14th largest public or private pension fund in the United States and is the 42nd largest retirement system in the world.

Membership

As of 2022, there are approximately 835 state employers participating in the system, including municipalities, counties, school districts, colleges and universities, law enforcement agencies, judiciary agencies, and state agencies. The Virginia Retirement System currently serves more than 750,000 members,

beneficiaries A beneficiary in the broadest sense is a natural person or other legal entity who receives money or other benefits from a benefactor. For example, the beneficiary of a life insurance policy is the person who receives the payment of the amount of ...

, and

retirees A pensioner is a person who receives a pension, most commonly because of retirement from the workforce. This is a term typically used in the United Kingdom (along with OAP, initialism of old-age pensioner), Ireland and Australia where someone of p ...

Governance

The Virginia Retirement System is governed by a 9-member

Board of Trustees A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

, which is a shared responsibility of the

Governor of Virginia The governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia is the head of government of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. The Governor (United States), governor is head of the Government_of_Virginia#Executive_branch, executive branch ...

and the

Virginia General Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, and the first elected legislative assembly in the New World. It was established on July 30, ...

. The legislature's Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission is responsible for oversight of the system. The current director of the system, Patricia Bishop, was appointed in 2015.

History

The Virginia Retirement System was established in 1942, originally opening its membership to state and school district employees. In 1944, the scope of the system was expanded to include employees of municipalities and counties in the state. In 1995 and 1996, the

Constitution of Virginia The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia is the document that defines and limits the powers of the state government and the basic rights of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Like all other state constitutions, it is supreme ...

was amended to require that the system's

trust fund A trust is a legal relationship in which the owner of property, or any transferable right, gives it to another to manage and use solely for the benefit of a designated person. In the English common law, the party who entrusts the property is k ...

s be established and operated as independent trusts.

Benefits

The system administers

defined benefit pension plan Defined benefit (DB) pension plan is a type of pension plan in which an employer/sponsor promises a specified pension payment, lump-sum, or combination thereof on retirement that depends on an employee's earnings history, tenure of service and a ...

defined contribution plan A defined contribution (DC) plan is a type of retirement plan in which the employer, employee or both make contributions on a regular basis. Individual accounts are set up for participants and benefits are based on the amounts credited to these a ...

s, and hybrid plans for Virginia's public sector employees. The system also offers a program known as a Cost-of-Living Adjustment, which graduates member payments with the current amount of state inflation.

References

External links