Wyoming

Overview

A single retirement system—the Wyoming Retirement System—administers retirement benefits for all employees of the State of Wyoming, public school teachers, and political subdivisions that have elected to participate. The WRS administers eight plans and the WRS board is responsible for managing the fund's assets.

Plan Design

Defined benefit plans serve as the primary retirement benefit for substantially all public employees in Wyoming.

According to the US Government Accountability Office, 97 percent of employees of state and local government in Arkansas participate in Social Security.

Access plan design detail

Authorizing Statutes and Board Structure

Title  9, Article 3, Chapter 4 of Wyoming Statutes authorizes and describes retirement systems in the state.
The WRS board is made up of 11 members, as described in Section 404. Aside from the state treasurer, who serves on the board ex-officio, all members are appointed by the governor.

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

Wyoming Statutes 9-3-408 describes the board’s investment standard of care, as follows:
In investing and managing monies in the retirement account, the board, or its designee, shall exercise the judgment and care that a prudent investor would, in light of the purposes, terms, distribution requirements and all other circumstances surrounding the monies in the retirement account, including risk and return objectives established by the board which are reasonably suitable to the purpose of the Wyoming retirement system.
 

Legal Protections of Retirement Benefits

No explicit constitutional protection for public pension benefits, but courts protect contractual pension rights based on due process principles. Peterson v. Sweetwater County School Dist. No. One, 929 P.2d 525 (Wyo. 1996) (recognizing that legitimate retirement expectations may constitute property rights that may not be deprived without due process of law); Tollefson v. Wyoming State Retirement Bd., 79 P.3d 518 (Wyo. 2003) (holding that performance-based salary constituted pensionable compensation); Wyland v. Wyland, 138 P.3d 1165 (Wyo. 2006) (holding that statute which denied firefighters with less than 5 years of service a refund of their compulsory contributions was not an unconstitutional taking of property without just compensation). (WY CONST., Article 1, §35) 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)