April 2026 Fire Relief Association Newsletter

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You'll notice that our newsletters and notices will be coming from a new email address, which isn't a monitored email account. Please continue to send all questions and reporting submissions to our pension@osa.state.mn.us email address. 

The Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement (LCPR) heard two proposals related to relief association vesting requirements and emergency medical providers. The LCPR adopted language that, if passed into law, will create a temporary work group for the purpose of recommending legislation to: (1) shorten the vesting schedule for relief associations to a maximum of ten years; (2) require that relief associations include volunteer or paid on-call emergency medical providers as members on the same basis as volunteer or paid on-call firefighters; and (3) make the same changes to the PERA Statewide Volunteer Firefighter Plan as are recommended for relief associations.

The LCPR is planning to hold a final meeting to compile the 2026 Omnibus Pension and Retirement Bill. We anticipate the Fire Relief Association Working Group provisions approved in March and the temporary Work Group described above will both be included. We'll provide another update in next month's Fire Relief Association Newsletter.

A new training video showing how to complete the allocation table for relief associations with a defined contribution plan is now available.

Additional training videos showing how to complete each section of the redesigned 2025 FIRE Form can be found on the Training Opportunities page of our website. Scroll down to the “Pension Division” heading and find the new videos under the “FIRE Form Series” heading. A short video walking through recent updates to relief association reporting forms is also available.

Every relief association must register annually as a nonprofit corporation with the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office. If a relief association fails to register or to notify the Secretary of State of corporate name or address changes, the Secretary of State may reject the registration and dissolve the relief association’s nonprofit corporation status.

A relief association can learn of its status by going to the Secretary of State's website. If a relief association has completed its registration for this calendar year, the renewal due date displayed on the Secretary of State’s website will read “12/31/2027.” Relief associations with a renewal due date displayed as “12/31/2026,” must complete the registration before December 31, 2026, or face possible dissolution of the association’s nonprofit corporation status.

An updated version of the Selected Relevant Statutes Booklet for relief associations is now available that contains many of the statutes governing these local public pension plans.

Relief association trustees and consultants are encouraged to download the booklet for reference when updating bylaws, making investment decisions, and calculating benefit payments.