Title 24, Retirement and Pensions

(a) In acquiring, investing, reinvesting, exchanging, retaining, selling, and managing funds held by each of the trusts, fiduciaries administering the systems shall manage the funds so as to favorably impact the economic condition of and maximize capital investment in the State o…

(a) The boards of trustees of the various state retirement systems are authorized to register stocks, bonds, notes, and other securities held by and for the systems in the name of a designated nominee. (b) Such action as is necessary to establish a nominee and a nominee agreement…

(a) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (b) of this section, trustees who invest and manage trust assets owe a duty to the beneficiaries of the trust to comply with the prudent investor rule set forth in §§ 24-2-610 — 24-2-619. (b) (1) The prudent investor rule, a default …

(a) Trustees shall invest and manage trust assets as a prudent investor would, by considering the purposes, terms, distribution requirements, and other circumstances of the trust. In satisfying this standard, the trustees shall exercise reasonable care, skill, and caution. (b) Th…

Trustees shall diversify the investments of the trust unless the trustees reasonably determine that, because of special circumstances, the purposes of the trust are better served without diversifying.

(a) Within a reasonable time after accepting a trusteeship or receiving trust assets, trustees shall review the trust assets and make and implement decisions concerning the retention and disposition of assets in order to bring the trust portfolio into compliance with the purposes…

Trustees shall invest and manage the trust assets solely in the interest of the members and benefit recipients of the trust.

If a trust has two (2) or more beneficiaries, the trustees shall act impartially in investing and managing the trust assets, taking into account any differing interests of the beneficiaries.

(a) In investing and managing trust assets, trustees may only incur costs that are appropriate and reasonable in relation to the assets, the purposes of the trust, and the skills of the trustee. (b) Trustees may delegate investment functions to an agent that a prudent trustee of …

Compliance with the prudent investor rule is determined in light of the facts and circumstances existing at the time of the trustees' decisions or actions and is not determined by hindsight.

(a) Trustees may delegate investment and management functions that a prudent trustee of comparable skills could properly delegate under the circumstances. The trustees shall exercise reasonable care, skill, and caution in:(1) Selecting an agent;(2) Establishing the scope and term…

(1) The following terms or comparable language in the provisions of a trust, unless otherwise limited or modified, authorizes any investment or strategy permitted under this subchapter:(1) “Investments permissible by law for investment of trust funds”;(2) “Legal investments”;(3) …

(a) The general financial objective of each Arkansas public employee retirement plan shall be to establish and receive contributions that, expressed as percentages of active member payroll, will remain approximately level from generation to generation of state citizens. More spec…

(a) Each Arkansas public employees' retirement system shall have an annual financial audit performed by Arkansas Legislative Audit and prepared in accordance with the financial accounting and reporting standards set forth for public pension plans by the Governmental Accounting St…

(a) The assets of the Arkansas Public Employees' Retirement System, the State Police Retirement System, the Arkansas Judicial Retirement System, the Arkansas State Highway Employees' Retirement System, and the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System are exempt from taxes by the state …

(a) In the event of any structural reorganization of state government operations, all current employees, appointees, trustees, and commissioners of any affected agency, board, or commission shall remain associated with the state-supported retirement system that existed for them a…

This subchapter shall be known and may be cited as the “State Government Employee Retirement Protection Act”.

(1) As used in this subchapter:(1) “Fiduciary” means a person who, with respect to a pension benefit plan:(A) Exercises any discretionary authority or discretionary control regarding the management of the pension benefit plan or exercises any authority or control regarding the ma…

(1) A fiduciary shall discharge his or her duties with respect to a pension benefit plan:(1) Solely in the pecuniary interest of the participants and beneficiaries and for the exclusive purpose of:(A) Providing pecuniary benefits to participants and their beneficiaries; and(B) De…

(a) A fiduciary's evaluation of an investment, or evaluation or exercise of any right appurtenant to an investment, shall take into account only pecuniary factors. (b) A fiduciary shall not promote a nonpecuniary benefit or any other nonpecuniary goals. (c) (1) An environmental, …

(a) (1) All shares held directly or indirectly by or on behalf of a pension benefit plan or its beneficiaries, or both, shall be voted upon solely in the pecuniary interest of the pension benefit plan participants.(2) Voting to further a nonpecuniary, environmental, social, polit…

(a) This subchapter may be enforced by the Attorney General. (b) If the Attorney General has reasonable cause to believe that a person has engaged in or is engaging in a violation of this subchapter, the Attorney General may:(1) Require the person to file on forms the Attorney Ge…

(a) For purposes of determining benefits under this chapter, all credited service, whenever earned, of persons employed as wildlife officers of the Arkansas State Game and Fish Commission on July 4, 1983, and of persons thereafter employed in such positions prior to July 1, 1997,…

(a) The right of a person to an annuity, to the return of accumulated contributions, the annuity itself, any annuity option, any other right accrued or accruing under the provisions of § 24-4-101 et seq., and all moneys belonging to a plan shall not be subject to execution, garni…

All records kept by an Arkansas public retirement system, whether required to be kept by law or board policy, shall be open to public inspection as provided in § 25-19-105, except that individual member's records which are kept for the purpose of compiling information for the mem…

(a) For purposes of determining benefits under this chapter, all credited service, whenever earned, of persons employed as civilian firefighters of the State Military Department or Department of the Military as of July 1, 1997, and of persons thereafter employed in those position…

(1) As used in this act:(1) “Accumulated contributions” means the sum of all amounts deducted from the compensations of a member and credited to his or her individual account in the member's deposit account, together with regular interest as may have been credited thereon;(2) “Ac…

A person who knowingly makes a material false statement or who materially falsifies or permits to be materially falsified any record in an attempt to defraud the Arkansas Public Employees' Retirement System as the result of such an act upon conviction is guilty of a Class D felon…

(a) There is created and established a retirement system for the employees of the State of Arkansas and participating public employers to be known as the “Arkansas Public Employees' Retirement System”. (b) All business of the system shall be transacted through a board of trustees…

(a) The administration and control of the Arkansas Public Employees' Retirement System shall be vested in a board called the “Board of Trustees of the Arkansas Public Employees' Retirement System”. (b) The board shall consist of the following members:(1) The Auditor of State, the…

(a) (1) The Board of Trustees of the Arkansas Public Employees' Retirement System shall hold meetings regularly, at least one (1) meeting in each quarter year, and shall designate the time and place of the meeting.(2) Special meetings may be held in accordance with such rules as …

(a) (1) (A) Notwithstanding any provisions to the contrary, it is considered sound public policy to limit contributions by public employers to one (1) state-authorized retirement plan. Accordingly, effective July 1, 1999, employers participating in the Arkansas Public Employees' …

The Board of Trustees of the Arkansas Public Employees' Retirement System shall present to the Joint Committee on Public Retirement and Social Security Programs information concerning the statutory authority and actuarial appropriateness of proposed board actions to establish or …

(a) (1) It shall be considered sound public policy to encourage public employees in the State of Arkansas to participate in the development and growth of their individual retirement benefits.(2) In order that the Arkansas Public Employees' Retirement System continues to maintain …

(a) The Board of Trustees of the Arkansas Public Employees' Retirement System shall promulgate rules as it deems necessary from time to time in order to fully comply with federal requirements that may affect the members or the members' benefits under this subchapter. (b) In meeti…

(a) A public employee, as defined in § 24-4-101(18), first hired on or after July 1, 2005, is subject to the benefit provisions of this subchapter. (b) (1) (A) A public employee who remains an active member of the Arkansas Public Employees' Retirement System may elect coverage un…

(a) (1) The contributions of a member shall be five percent (5%) of the member's annual compensation and shall be placed in the member's deposit account as provided in § 24-4-401.(2) Interest shall be paid on accumulated member contributions at the rate of two percent (2%) per an…

(a) (1) Upon retirement under this subchapter, a member shall receive a straight life pension equal to two and three-hundredths percent (2.03%) of the member's final average compensation multiplied by the number of years and any fraction of a year of the member's service for each…

Before the date the first payment of a member's annuity is due, a member may elect to receive the annuity as a straight life annuity or as one (1) of the reduced annuity options provided in § 24-4-606.

(a) Any member or former member with sufficient years of actual service to qualify for a vested termination annuity who has not attained normal retirement age may retire with an early annuity provided in § 24-4-510(a). (b) In the event a member with five (5) or more years of actu…

(a) In the event a retirant receiving a straight life pension dies before the retirant has received an aggregate amount of straight life pension payments equal to the accumulated contributions credited in the retirant's deposit account at the time of retirement, the difference be…

(a) Each July 1 the Arkansas Public Employees' Retirement System shall redetermine the amount of each monthly benefit that has been payable by the system for at least twelve (12) calendar months. The redetermined amount is payable for the following twelve (12) calendar months. (b…

(a) (1) If an active member or former member with less than five (5) years of actual service dies while employed by a covered employer, the member's accumulated contributions and interest are refundable to the named beneficiary.(2) If no designated person survives the member, the…

(a) Benefits paid under this chapter shall not exceed the limitations of 26 U.S.C. § 415 of the Internal Revenue Code that are applicable to governmental retirement plans. (b) (1) The Board of Trustees of the Arkansas Public Employees' Retirement System is authorized to promulgat…

(a) (1) There is established on the books of the Treasurer of State, the Auditor of State, and the Secretary of the Department of Finance and Administration a fund to be known as the “Arkansas Public Employees' Retirement System Fund”.(2) This fund shall consist of trust funds as…

(a) (1) On or after July 1, 2017, the state employer contributions made by a state agency which employs each member provided for in § 24-2-701 shall be:(A) Reported electronically by the state agency through the Arkansas Public Employees' Retirement System portal; and(B) Paid by …