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Virginia

Overview

The Virginia Retirement System is the sole state retirement system in Virginia, administering retirement benefits for all employees of the state, public school teachers, and employees of political subdivisions that have elected to participate. The VRS board administers four systems: the VRS, the State Police Officers’ Retirement System; the Law Enforcement Officers’ Retirement System, and the Judicial Retirement System; and three plans that comprise the VRS, for state employees, teachers, and employees of political subdivisions. All assets are managed by Virginia Retirement System board.

Plan Design

Most employees hired into the VRS since 1/1/14 participate in a hybrid, DB-DC plan. This does not include public safety officers and judges, who participate in defined benefit plans.
 

According to the US Government Accountability Office, 98 percent of employees of state and local government in Virginia participate in Social Security.

Access plan design detail

Authorizing Statutes and Board Structure

Virginia Code Title 51.1 establishes the Virginia Retirement System Board, which is made up of nine 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

Virginia Code Title 51.1 describes the board’s investment standard of care, as follows:
The Board shall discharge its duties with respect to the Retirement System solely in the interest of the beneficiaries thereof and shall invest the assets of the Retirement System 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. The Board shall also diversify such investments 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, but courts provide limited protection based on impairment of contract principles for fully vested employees who performed all employee obligations. Pitts v. City of Richmond, 366 S.E.2d 56 (Va. 1988) (holding that inchoate rights to retirement benefits do not vest until a member qualifies for retirement). (VA CONST., Article 1, §11) 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

Flag of Virginia (January 31, 1861)

Population (2025) 8,880,107

Virginia public pension statistics, per U.S. Census Bureau as of FY 2025

Assets

$146.8 billion

Active Members

440,683

Annuitants

306,836

Benefits Paid

$8.6 billion

Employee Contributions

$1.4 billion

Employer Contributions

$4.5 billion

Systems

One state retirement system that administers four systems--the VRS; the State Police Officers' Retirement System; the Law Enforcement Officers' Retirement System; and the Judicial Retirement System--and three plans that account for 83 percent of assets and 86 percent of all public pension plan participants in the state. There also are 30 local retirement systems sponsored by several counties and cities.

Other Resources


Become A Member

Becoming a member of NASRA offers a unique opportunity to join a community committed to the sound, efficient, and innovative stewardship of public retirement systems. Membership connects you with a network of professionals and experts, providing valuable insights into managing public retirement systems with a focus on sustainability and risk-averse strategies.

By joining NASRA, you gain the tools and resources to enhance the management of public retirement systems, ensuring their long-term success and reliability for generations to come.

What's New at NASRA: Government Spending Issue Brief

NASRA’s March 2026 update on government spending makes a basic but important point: public pension benefits are not paid out of a government’s day-to-day operating budget. They are paid from trust funds that employees and employers contribute to during an employee’s working years. Those trusts distribute more than $400 billion each year to retirees and beneficiaries in communities across the country. On a national basis, employer contributions to pension trusts in FY 2023 equaled 5.16 percent of direct general spending by state and local governments, which shows that pension contributions remain a limited share of overall public spending even though the level varies from one state to another. 
The brief also shows that pension costs should be viewed in the context of the changes governments have made over the past 15 years to strengthen plan funding. Following the 2008–09 market decline, nearly every state and many local governments adjusted contributions, benefits, or both to improve pension sustainability. More recent data show that employer contributions increased from FY 2022 to FY 2023, but pension spending as a share of total government spending remained broadly stable. The updated brief provides FY 2023 figures and also projects the aggregate pension spending rate for FY 2024, offering a useful snapshot of both current costs and the longer funding trend.