Oklahoma

Overview

Oklahoma sponsors six state retirement systems: the Teachers’ Retirement System of Oklahoma; the Oklahoma Public Employees’ Retirement System; the Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System; the Oklahoma Police Pension and Retirement System; the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Retirement System; and the Wildlife  Conservation Retirement Plan.

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

Some political subdivisions sponsor their own retirement system, including Oklahoma County, Tulsa County and Oklahoma City and the City of Tulsa.

Plan Design

Most public employees in Oklahoma participate in a traditional defined benefit plan. Exceptions are state employees hired since November 2015 and employees of the Wildlife Conservation Retirement Plan hired since July 2010, who participate in a defined contribution plan as their primary retirement benefit.

According to the US Government Accountability Office, 92 percent of employees of state and local government in Oklahoma participate in Social Security.

Access plan design detail

Authorizing Statutes and Board Structure

TRS of Oklahoma: Oklahoma Statutes Title 70, Chapter 17, Section 106

OK PERS: Title 74, Chapter 905

OK Firefighters Pension & Retirement System: Oklahoma Statutes Title 11

OK Police Pension & Retirement System: Oklahoma Statutes Title 11

OK Law Enforcement Retirement System Title 47, Chapter 2

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 … shall discharge their duties with respect to the System solely in the interest of the participants and beneficiaries and:
1. For the exclusive purpose of:

a. providing benefits to participants and their beneficiaries, and
b. defraying reasonable expenses of administering the System;

2. With the care, skill, prudence, and diligence under the circumstances then prevailing that a prudent person 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;

3. 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; and

4. In accordance with the laws, documents and instruments governing the System.
 

Legal Protections of Retirement Benefits

Taylor v. State Education Employees Group Insurance Plan, 897 P.2d 275 (Ok. 1995); Op. Atty. Gen. No. 96-21 (recognizing that failure to fund existing unfunded actuarial accrued liability in a public retirement system, in addition to constituting an impairment of pension rights, violates the contract clause unless the State can demonstrate that the contractual obligation arose under statute and the impairment was reasonable and necessary to serve an important public purpose). (OK CONST., Article X, §15) 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)