Louisiana
Overview
Major public retirement systems in the state of Louisiana include the Louisiana State Employees' Retirement System (LASERS), the Louisiana Teachers Retirement System (TRS), and the Parochial Employees' Retirement System (PERSLA).
The LASERS, a qualified defined benefit pension plan, was created in 1946. It provides guaranteed benefits to state employees, elected judges, and certain other elected officials. Members of LASERS do not contribute to Social Security and their pension benefit is the only guaranteed retirement income.
TRS of Louisiana administers pension and other benefits to employees who meet the definition of a teacher at public educational institutions of the state. TRS also administers an optional defined contribution plan for academic employees of state higher educational institutions.
PERSLA is a defined benefit plan which provides retirement and other allowances to retired employees of all civil parishes in Louisiana except Orleans East Baton Rouge, and Lafourche.
Plan Design
Defined benefit plans serve as the primary retirement benefit for substantially all public employees in Louisiana.
According to the US Government Accountability Office, 17 percent of employees of state and local government in Louisiana participate in Social Security.
Authorizing Statutes and Board Structure
LA Rev Stat § 11:401 establishes the Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System. LA Rev Stat § 11:511 describes the composition of the LASERS Board of Trustees, which includes 10 members.
LA Rev Stat § 11:702 establishes the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana. LA Rev Stat § 11:822 describes the composition of the TRSLA Board of Trustees, which includes 17 members.
Details regarding the composition of these and other retirement boards is accessible via the Retirement and Investment Board Characteristics search tool located at the bottom of this page.
Fiduciary Duty/Prudence Standard
LA Rev Stat § 11:263 stipulates that,
“(B)The prudent-man rule shall require each fiduciary of a retirement system and each board of trustees acting collectively on behalf of each system to act with the care, skill, prudence, and diligence under the circumstances prevailing that a prudent institutional investor acting in a like capacity and familiar with such matters would use in the conduct of an enterprise of a like character and with like aims. (C) C. This standard requires the exercise of reasonable care, skill, and caution, and is to be applied to investments not in isolation, but in the context of the trust portfolio, and as part of an overall investment strategy, which shall include an asset allocation study and plan for implementation thereof, incorporating risk and return objectives reasonably suitable to that trust. The asset allocation study and implementation plan shall include the examination of market value risk, credit risk, interest rate risk, inflation risk, counterparty risk, and concentration risk. The investment policy of each system, plan, or fund shall preserve and enhance principal over the long term and provide adequate liquidity and cash flow for the payment of benefits. The investments shall be diversified to minimize the risk of significant losses unless it is clearly prudent not to do so.
LA Rev Stat § 11:263 also describes the requirement that the board(s) may not invest more than 55 percent of the total portfolio in equities, except so long as not more than 65 percent of the total portfolio is invested in equities and at least ten percent of the total equity portfolio is invested in one or more index funds which seek to replicate the performance of the chosen index or indices.
Legal Protections of Retirement Benefits
Membership in any retirement system of the state of a political subdivision thereof shall be a contractual relationship between employee and employer, and the state shall guarantee benefits payable to a member of a state retirement system or retiree or his lawful beneficiary upon his death... The accrued benefits of members of any state or statewide public retirement system shall not be diminished or impaired. Future benefit provisions for members of the state and statewide public retirement systems shall only be altered by legislative enactment. But see Louisiana Municipal Association v. State, Sup.2005, 893 So.2d 809, 2004-0227 (La. 2005)(state constitutional mandate of actuarial soundness of state and statewide public retirement systems does not dictate how that actuarial soundness is to be accomplished and does not prescribe how the retirement systems are to be funded; mechanism by which actuarial soundness is achieved is left to the discretion of the legislature). (LA CONST., Article X, §29) Source: Robert Klausner, Esq., State Constitutional Protections for Public Sector Retirement Benefits
See also the following search tools:
| Retirement System Account Interest Policies | Economic Actuarial Assumptions | Retirement and Investment Board Characteristics |
| Information about interest rates applied to account balances of inactive plan participants | Assumed rates of investment return and inflation | Composition and characteristics of public retirement and investment oversight boards |
| Mortality Assumptions | Plan Design Features | Post-retirement Employment Policies |
| Public retirement system actuarial assumptions for mortality | Numerous elements of retirement plan design | Policies governing return-to-work for retirement system annuitants |
More Data
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Population (2024) 4,597,740 |
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Louisiana public pension statistics, |
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Assets |
$67.7 billion |
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Active Members |
203,612 |
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Annuitants |
184,204 |
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Benefits Paid |
$5.7 billion |
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Employee Contributions |
$963.6 million |
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Employer Contributions |
$3.9 billion |
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Systems |
13 state systems that together account for 96 percent of assets and 95 percent public pension plan participants in the state. The Census Bureau also reports 16 local systems. |
More Data
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Roll Call (members-only)
Other Resources
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Sustainability of the Louisiana State Retirement Systems, Actuary for the Legislative Auditor, presentation to the Public Retirement Systems' Actuarial Committee Meeting, August 13, 2015
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History of the Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System
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History of the Louisiana Teachers’ Retirement System
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Pensions in the Parishes, an analysis of the economic effects of public pensions in Louisiana, Louisiana Budget Project (January 2014)
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Actuarial Analysis of the Cost Impact of Switching New State Hires to a Cash Balance Plan, Actuarial Services Department of the Louisiana State Legislative Auditor (June 2012)