Your cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is coming mid-year. Your COLA will go into effect July 1 and will be included in your August 1 benefit payment.

The percentage you will receive can depend on a few factors, including your membership type, when you earned service or retirement credit, and your retirement date. Membership types are Tier One, Tier Two, and the Oregon Public Service Retirement Plan (OPSRP).

To learn what percentage of COLA you will receive and how COLAs are determined, read our cost-of-living adjustments webpage.

If you plan to work for a PERS-participating employer after retirement, check out the applicable rules on our Senate Bill (SB) 1049 webpage.

SB 1049 (2019) simplified some previous work-after-retirement rules as of January 1, 2020. House Bill (HB) 2296 (2023) extended the rules set by SB 1049 through 2034. These rules, however, do not apply to some early retirees and disability retirees.

PERS is not involved in hiring decisions between retirees and employers. Whether a PERS-participating employer hires you, or places any limits on you as a PERS retiree, is between you and your employer.

The PERS annual Member Satisfaction Survey is coming next month. Share your feedback and help PERS, the agency, improve our member services.

Starting May 1, you can complete the survey online. PERS will send a reminder about the survey once it's available.

You will have until May 31 to complete the online-only survey.

If you are about to become Medicare-eligible and are seeking health-care options, the PERS Health Insurance Program (PHIP) can help.

Eligibility, enrollment, and plan information is available in a series of videos.

More information can be found on the PHIP website.

PERS will not make unsolicited calls to you and will never ask you for account login or financial information.

PERS will only contact you in response to a request you made, a form you submitted, or another action you took. If you are unsure whether someone contacting you is from PERS, call Member Services directly at 1-888-320-7377 to check.

Read more on our Protect yourself from fraud webpage.

By Tobias Read
Oregon State Treasurer

Earlier this year, Oregon State Treasury released its plan for transitioning the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund (OPERF) to a net-zero carbon emissions portfolio by no later than 2050.

Guided by our responsibility to beneficiaries of the state retirement system, my team and I worked to develop a responsible net-zero transition plan for OPERF that will allow the fund to continue to deliver strong returns for members now and in the future.

Recognizing the importance of taking action to address the investment risks related to the global climate crisis, our goal during the plan’s development was to position the pension for the future.

Treasury has long been on a path to better understand and act on the risks of climate change, both through public-facing efforts as a responsible investor and in the behind-the-scenes work our staff engages in daily while managing our investment portfolio.

This plan came together thanks to the tireless and sincere engagement of people inside and out of Treasury.

We took several steps to identify the best strategy to move the portfolio to net zero by 2050, including:

• Developing guiding principles that put PERS members first.
• Completing a thorough analysis of OPERF to establish baseline emissions measurements.
• Exploring the feasibility of different pathways to decarbonize the portfolio.
• Engaging with PERS members, such as through our pension feedback survey last year.

I want to again extend my appreciation to PERS members who participated in our survey. Your time and responses provided our team at Treasury with valuable feedback.

Over the next several years, Treasury plans to begin implementing emission reduction strategies, while maintaining target returns and avoiding portfolio disruptions.

I invite you to visit the Treasury website to read more about the net-zero transition plan on our Sustainable Investing webpage.

By Oregon State Treasury

Oregon State Treasury invited PERS members last year to complete an online survey about Treasury’s management of pension fund investments.

With cooperation from PERS, the agency, and direct outreach from Treasury, the survey was shared with thousands of active and retired PERS members from state and local governments across Oregon.

This engagement effort yielded more than 5,800 responses* — providing insights into members’ investment preferences, overall understanding of our state’s pension system, and interest in learning more about how Treasury manages your retirement funds. 

Obtaining PERS members’ feedback was a core component of Treasury’s efforts to develop and implement a responsible net-zero transition plan for the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund (OPERF).

The plan was published earlier this year on the Treasury website.

Survey highlights include:

• “Manage short- and long-term risks to investments to generate sustainable investment returns” was chosen by more than half of survey takers as the most important aspect of how Treasury manages PERS members’ retirement savings.
• About a third of survey takers said they wanted Treasury’s management to generate the highest possible investment returns for current and future retirees.
• More than half of survey takers who responded to the question “Should Oregon continue to encourage companies [in which OPERF is invested] to consider long-term risks of climate change in their business decisions?” answered “yes.”

Treasury looks forward to continuing to provide updates in the future about its investment practices and the management of your retirement savings.

(*61% of survey responses came from nonretired members and 39% from retired members.)

If you are caring for a PERS benefit recipient, you will need to contact PERS — and possibly the PERS Health Insurance Program (PHIP) — if you need to manage the member’s account and/or make health insurance or financial decisions on their behalf. You may need to submit the following forms or information:

• Authorization to Release Account Information* — This form will allow you to access a PERS member’s account information.
• Special Power of Attorney for PERS* — This form will allow you to handle the affairs of a PERS member if they are unable to act on their own behalf.
• Letters of conservatorship or guardianship — A “conservatorship or guardianship” is a court-appointed person or entity (such as a nursing home) that is legally responsible for another person and their property.
• Notification of a member’s death — A family member, beneficiary, or caregiver must notify PERS (and PHIP, if applicable) as soon as possible after the death of a retired member to stop benefit payments and prevent overpayment. Joint account holders or the member's estate may be responsible for repaying PERS for any overpayments that occur. Read more on the When a PERS member dies webpage. 

*Note that the account information release and special power of attorney forms are only valid while the member is alive.

Don’t be a stranger! Keep your information with PERS up to date, and mail or fax your forms to us in a timely manner. Find the forms you need online.

Address, direct deposit, tax, and residency changes

If you're moving or otherwise need to change your address, direct deposit information, tax withholding, or residency status (Tier One retirees only), you can find details about how to make changes on our Moving webpage.

Divorce

If you're getting a divorce, contact Member Services about divorce and your PERS benefits.

Account access

If you become ill or incapacitated, do you want someone else to manage your PERS accounts on your behalf? If so, you will need to complete one or both of these forms, depending on the level of account access you want them to have:

• An Authorization to Release Account Information form allows you to authorize a third party to obtain information regarding your PERS account or benefits.
• A Special Power of Attorney for PERS form gives the person(s) you designate the power to make decisions for PERS-related matters on your behalf.

Reporting a death

After a PERS member dies, a representative should contact Member Services as soon as possible. Failure to report a death in a timely manner may result in having to pay back retirement payments. PERS will require the date of death, city and state where the death occurred, a photocopy of the death certificate, and a spouse or personal representative contact information.