Ohio

Overview

Ohio sponsors five state retirement systems: the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio (STRS OH); the Ohio Public Employees’ Retirement System (OPERS); the Ohio School Employees Retirement System (OH SERS); the Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund; and the Ohio Highway Patrol Retirement System (OH HPRS).

OPERS administers retirement benefits for employees of the state and political subdivisions that have elected to participate who are not eligible to participate in another retirement plan. Each retirement system is responsible for managing its own assets.

The City of Cincinnati sponsors the sole local retirement system in Ohio.

Plan Design

Defined benefit plans are the primary retirement benefit for all state and local government employees in the state with the exception of OPERS participants hired since 2003 (excluding reemployed retirees and full-time law enforcement and public safety positions) and STRS OH participants hired since 2001, who may elect to participate in a DB-DC hybrid plan in lieu of the traditional defined benefit plan.

According to the US Government Accountability Office, substantially all employees of state and local government in Ohio do not participate in Social Security.

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Authorizing Statutes and Board Structure

STRS OH: Ohio Revised Code Chapter 3307
OH PERS: Ohio Revised Code Title 1, Chapter 145
OH SERS: Ohio Revised Code Title 33, Chapter 3309
OH Police & Fire Pension Fund: Ohio Revised Title 7, Chapter 742
OH HPRS: Ohio Revised Code Title 55, Chapter 5505

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

All state retirement boards have the same statutory standard of care, as follows:

The board and other fiduciaries shall discharge their duties with respect to the funds solely in the interest of the participants and beneficiaries; for the exclusive purpose of providing benefits to participants and their beneficiaries and defraying reasonable expenses of administering the system; with care, skill, prudence, and diligence under the circumstances then prevailing that a prudent person acting in a like capacity and familiar with these matters would use in the conduct of an enterprise of a like character and with like aims; and by diversifying the investments of the system so as to minimize the risk of large losses, unless under the circumstances it is clearly prudent not to do so.

Legal Protections of Retirement Benefits

No explicit constitutional protection for public pension benefits. Courts will look to pension statutes to evaluate contract claims. Herrick v. Lindley, 391 N.E.2d 729 (Ohio 1979) (public employees retirement system retirees have a statutorily created vested right to receive a retirement allowance at the rate fixed by law when such benefit was conferred); State ex rei. Horvath v. State Teachers Retirement Bd., 697 N.E.2d 644 (Ohio 1998)(public school teachers do not possess contract rights in any retirement benefit unless and until benefit vests by operation of applicable statute). (OH CONST., Article II, §28) Source: Robert Klausner, Esq., State Constitutional Protections for Public Sector Retirement Benefits

See also the following search tools:

More Data

• Public Fund Survey Summary of Findings
• Roll Call (NASRA members-only)