Cost-of-living increase
March 4, 2015. To: Eligible pension recipients
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, we are very pleased to announce the approval of a 2.5% cost-of-living increase to eligible retirees and survivors. The eligibility requirements to receive the increase are as follows:
- All retirees with a date of retirement on or before January 1, 2012;
- Retirees with a date of retirement after January 1, 2012, but on or before January 1, 2014 and a date of birth on or before January 1, 1954.
The Board was very happy to approve the increase at the meeting on February 24, 2015. The increase was retroactive to January 1, 2015. A lump-sum payment for the period January through February was made payable March 4, 2015. The approved cost of living increase is a permanent, monthly increase which was included in the March 2015 benefit.
Please be advised that all cost-of-living increases are totally taxable, in accordance with IRS regulations. The retroactive payment for January through February is considered a non periodic distribution, subject to a withholding rate of 10% unless you have elected not to have federal tax withheld from your monthly benefit.
The philosophy of the Board and Staff is that our Pension Fund exists for the benefit and well being of our members. Our most important goal is to ensure that the Fund will always be in a position to meet the lifetime monthly benefit you earned at retirement.
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Addendum to the statement of policy on overtime pay
July 31, 2020. To: Sheriffs and liaison personnel
This document is an addendum to our original “Statement of Policy on Overtime Pay” included in our liaison library for your convenience and further clarification. Please call our Benefits Department if you have questions concerning the interpretation of allowable pensionable overtime pay in the Sheriffs’ Pension Fund.
In accordance with law, pensionable overtime may only be defined as a required extension of the regular tour of duty as follows:
- Must be performed on a regularly scheduled work day, while performing the deputies’/employees’ established, assigned function where there is no completion of then return to an extension of the shift.
- The tour of duty is defined as a specific, regular schedule of assigned work hours.
- An additional shift or work day worked beyond and after completion of the regular schedule is not pensionable wages.
- Voluntary overtime is not regular tour of duty and not pensionable.
- A completion of the regular tour of duty and later “call back” is not pensionable wages.
The Pension Fund recognizes and respects that overtime assigned and worked is at the absolute authority and discretion of the Sheriff; how the overtime is determined to be pensionable wages is the Fund’s legal responsibility as required by law.
Emergency declarations
In emergency declarations by State or Federal authorities, “pensionable” overtime is not automatically provided for or authorized. A broad area emergency declaration requiring scheduling of overtime, beyond the regular tour of duty for an officially declared emergency must be pre-approved by the Fund to be considered pensionable wages, and must still be an extension of the regular tour of duty. The following information should be furnished:
- Was there a declaration of emergency for a specific disaster or event wherein protection of the public was involved?
- Were the regular work schedules or tour of duty altered by specific order of the sheriff?
- Please provide copies of the sheriff’s orders requiring the temporary schedules.
- Was acceptance of overtime assignments mandatory or elective?
- Please identify the divisions that were affected.
R.S. 11:233B(2)
Earnings or earned or earnable compensation shall not include:
- (a) Overtime unless it is required to be worked in the employee’s regular tour of duty;
- (b) Operating expenses;
- (c) Use of automobile or motor vehicles;
- (d) The cost of any insurance paid by the employer;
- (e) Any allowance for expenses incurred as an incident of employment;
- (f) Payments made in lieu of unused annual or sick leave; and
- (g) Bonuses, terminal pay, severance pay, deferred salary, or any other type of irregular or nonrecurring payment.
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Employer contribution rate, fiscal year 2023
May 27, 2022. To: All sheriffs and parish liaisons
On behalf of the Board of Trustees and staff, we are pleased to advise you that the required employer contribution rate for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2022 will be reduced to 11.50%. This rate represents a 0.75% decrease from the current employer contribution rate of 12.25%. The employee contribution rate will remain unchanged at 10.25% for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2022. Our contribution rate remains among the lowest of state and statewide systems.
Looking ahead to the coming fiscal year, we are hopeful that we may be able to replenish reserves in the Funding Deposit Account. This fund was created by the Board to accumulate reserves during periods of favorable years that are authorized to be used to offset increases in the employer contribution rate.
Please be assured that the Board of Trustees and staff will continue to make every effort to limit any future increases in the employer contribution rate and will plan to reduce rates as market and actuarial conditions permit.
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Updating monthly salary
February 1, 2016. To: All sheriffs and parish liaisons
It has come to our attention that monthly salaries are not being maintained on pension contribution reports. We often use this information in our membership and benefits departments. We ask that you would please update this field every time there is a change in a member’s monthly salary.
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Funding of cost-of-living increases
April 15, 2014. To: Pension recipients
One of the major requirements that has to be met for LSPRF, or any other statewide public pension system, to grant a COLA is the generation of excess investment income over and above its assumed rate of return on an actuarial basis. Earnings that meet the assumed rate of return cannot be used for COLAs, as the assumed rate is a basic funding component in the funding of the Plan. The actuarial rate of return on investments is calculated using a 5-year “smoothing” (similar to averaging) method of gains and/or losses.
In 2011 and other recent years, we have worked to pass legislation that will provide cost savings in the benefits structure and future liabilities of our Plan to protect and enhance the financial soundness of LSPRF, and to provide a better balance between the benefits we are promising new members and the need to assist our retirees with increases on a more frequent basis. In 2013, our Fund successfully sponsored legislation to restructure the provisions of law regulating the granting of COLAs.
This is an excerpt. The original memo discusses the 2014 outlook in full.
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Limited membership
November 9, 2009. To: Parish liaisons
Applicants for membership are required to complete the enrollment process within six months of their date of employment. Should the process not be completed within the six-month period, the applicant will not begin vesting for disability benefits (10 years of service) until the enrollment process is completed, although the applicant begins to vest for regular retirement benefits (12 years of service) from the date of employment. The member will be placed in “limited membership” status until the enrollment process is completed.
The date of completion, if later than six months from the date of employment, becomes the date from which the member will begin to accrue service credit for disability vesting. Members who do not complete the enrollment process and are injured in-the-line-of-duty will be required to prove the disability was not due to preexisting conditions. [R.S. 11:2181A]
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Part-time reemployment of retirees in a sheriff’s office
November 9, 2009. To: Parish liaisons
A retiree receiving a benefit from the Pension Fund may be employed by a sheriff’s office on a part-time basis after retirement and continue to receive his retirement benefit, with limitations. Earnings from part-time employment cannot exceed, in a fiscal year, 50% of the retiree’s final average compensation for reemployment during the first 24 months following the date of retirement or 55% of his final average compensation beginning with the 25th month following the date of retirement and thereafter.
The retiree is not entitled to any additional creditable service for such part-time reemployment and no employee or employer contributions will be paid on the retiree’s earnings.
In the event the retiree earns, in any fiscal year, an amount that exceeds 50% or 55% of his final average compensation, as the case may be, payment of the retiree’s monthly benefit will be suspended for the remainder of that fiscal year.
If the retiree continues to work for a sheriff’s office after suspension of his benefit and monthly earnings are $800 or more, he must be enrolled as an active member in the Pension Fund for the remainder of that fiscal year.
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