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Colorado

Overview

The Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association (COPERA) administers pension and other benefits for state employees, public school teachers, and employees (except non-public safety personnel) of political subdivisions that elected to participate. The System administers separate plans for state employees, school employees, local governments, and judges. School employees comprise approximately 62% of all active members. New state hires since January 1, 2006, may choose between a defined benefit plan or a defined contribution plan administered by PERA; the legislature extended this arrangement to higher education faculty and staff beginning with those hired in 2008. PERA also administers a voluntary 401(k) plan.

The Denver Public Schools Retirement System administers pension and other benefits for all full-time employees of the Denver School District. The system was merged into Colorado PERA effective January 1, 2010.

The Colorado Fire & Police Pension Association (FPPA) provides pension, disability, and defined contribution plans for employees of municipal fire and police plans and volunteer fire plans that elected to participate.

Plan Design

Most Colorado public employees participate in a defined benefit plan. State employees hired since January 1, 2006, and local government employees hired since January 1, 2020 may elect to instead participate in a defined contribution plan. Public safety personnel employed by departments that elect coverage may participate in a combination DB+DC hybrid plan.

According to the US Government Accountability Office, 30 percent of employees of state and local government in Colorado participate in Social Security.

Access plan design detail

Authorizing Statutes and Board Structure

CO Rev Stat § 24-51-201 creates the Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association. CO Rev Stat § 24-51-203 establishes the board, consisting of fifteen trustees.

CO Rev Stat § 31-31-201 creates the Colorado Fire & Police Pension Association, which is overseen by a 9 member board of trustees.

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

CO Rev Stat § 24-51-207 pertains to Colorado PERA:

(1) The trustees of the board shall be held to the standard of conduct of a fiduciary specified in subsection (2) of this section in the discharge of their functions. Their functions shall include any duty, obligation, power, authority, responsibility, right, privilege, activity, or program specified in this article in connection with the association.

(2)(a) As fiduciaries, such trustees shall carry out their functions solely in the interest of the members and benefit recipients and for the exclusive purpose of providing benefits and defraying reasonable expenses incurred in performing such duties as required by law. The trustees shall act in accordance with the provisions of this article and with the care, skill, prudence, and diligence in light of 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 by diversifying the investments of the association so as to minimize the risk of large losses, unless in light of such circumstances it is clearly prudent not to do so.

CO Rev Stat § 31-31-302 pertains to Colorado FPPA:

(1)(a)The board shall be the trustee of the fire and police members' benefit investment fund and shall have full and unrestricted discretionary power and authority to invest and reinvest such portions of the fund as in its judgment may not be immediately required for the payment of refunds or benefits. In exercising its discretionary authority with respect to the management and investment of fund assets, the board shall be governed by the standard and other provisions for trustees set forth in the "Colorado Uniform Prudent Investor Act", article 1.1 of title 15, C.R.S.

Legal Protections of Retirement Benefits

Courts applied state constitutional protection against impairment of contract in Art. 2, §11 to protect vested pension benefits. Until benefits fully vest, pension benefits can be changed. For benefits that are only partially vested, any adverse change must be balanced by a corresponding change of a beneficial nature, an actuarially necessary change, or a change that strengthens or improves the pension plan. If a plan amendment fails to satisfy any of these three criteria, it is an unconstitutional impairment of existing contract rights. See Police Pension & Relief Board v. Bills, 366 P.2d 581 (1961); Peterson v. Fire & Police Pension Ass'n., 759 P.2d 720 (Colo. 1988); Mcinerney v. Public Employees' Retirement Ass'n, 976 P.2d 348 (Colo App.1998)(in Colorado rights accruing under a pension plan are contractual obligations protected under state and federal constitutions; retirement pay becomes a vested right when an employee complied with the conditions imposed entitling the employee to the receipt of retirement benefits). In 2011, the state trial court in Justus v. State, Case No. 201OCV1589, distinguished between COLA benefits and base benefits in approving a unilateral reduction of the COLA formula. Reversed on contract grounds in 2012 by Court of Appeals, 2012 WL 4829545. [CO CONST., Article 2, §11 (not explicit protection of public pensions; basic protection against impairment of contract)] 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 Colorado(December 4, 1911)

Population (2025) 6,012,561

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

Assets

$87.4 billion

Active Members

310,508

Annuitants

180,106

Benefits Paid

$6.9 billion

Employee Contributions

$1.9 billion

Employer Contributions

$3.6 billion

Systems

Two state systems that together account for 90 percent of assets and 86 percent of public pension plan participants in the state. The Census Bureau also reports 59 local systems.

More Data

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.