Public retirement systems in Louisiana provide retirement benefits to state and local government employees. The Louisiana Revised Statutes provide for the funding and benefits of these systems.
Four public retirement systems in Louisiana are considered to be state agencies and are included in the state’s annual comprehensive financial report (ACFR). These are referred to as state retirement systems:
- Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System
- Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana
- Louisiana School Employees’ Retirement System
- Louisiana State Police Retirement System
The four state retirement systems provide stand-alone audit reports to the Louisiana Legislative Auditor (LLA). These reports are available to the public through the audit report library on LLA’s website.
Nine public retirement systems in Louisiana offer benefits to employees who work for certain types of local government agencies throughout the state. These retirement systems are referred to as statewide retirement systems:
- Assessors
- Clerks of court
- District Attorneys
- Firefighters
- Municipal Employees
- Municipal Police Employees
- Parochial Employees
- Registrar of Voter Employees
- Sheriffs
Other public retirement systems in Louisiana provide retirement benefits to local government employees of a single local government, such as a specific parish or municipality.
Both statewide and local government retirement systems report to LLA as local auditees. Their annual audit reports are available to the public through LLA’s audit report library. Statewide and local government retirement systems are not included in the state’s ACFR.
State and statewide retirement systems are also required by the audit law (Louisiana Revised Statute 24:514) to provide annual actuarial valuations to LLA.
A series of standards promulgated by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board address reporting for public retirement systems, and the state and local government agencies whose employees participate in them. Many of the amounts included in public retirement systems’ audit reports are actuarially derived, and the procedures necessary to determine these amounts are very complex.
The Louisiana Compliance Questionnaire requires retirement systems to provide statements or representations to their auditor regarding their compliance with certain provisions laws and regulations. Auditors are required to test the system’s compliance with these laws and regulations.