Current Departments
Fire Chief and Governing Body Responsibilities
PERA communicates with two designated contacts about the Statewide Volunteer Firefighter (SVF) Plan:
- fire chief
- governing body representative
- This must be an employee of the governing body, such as: clerk, treasurer, or finance director. This person may not be a firefighter.
PERA recommends that other interested parties coordinate with one of the designated representatives to address any questions. This helps to maintain PERA’s SVF plan administration as a cost-efficient program, avoids duplicate inquires and conserves program resources.
Fire Chief Responsibilities
Certify volunteer firefighter service credit each year
The fire chief must annually certify the service credit earned by their department’s volunteer firefighters.
Communicate with PERA
Contact PERASVF@mnpera.org regarding any service credit, enrollment, or department related questions.
Governing Body Responsibilities
Set Benefit Level
Under the SVF Plan, the fire department’s governing body has a fiduciary responsibility to their volunteer firefighters. This includes the responsibility to determine an appropriate benefit level per year of service for their volunteer firefighters. For more information on setting the SVF Plan benefit level for your fire department, see the Understanding SVF Benefit Level Increases webinar.
Apply for Fire State Aid Annually
The fire department’s governing body must continue to apply for fire state aid each year. PERA receives and deposits the fire state aid annually into the department’s SVF Plan account.
Pay Required Contributions
The fire department’s governing body must pay any required contributions due per invoices issued by PERA. Required contributions are due only if the projected annual fire state aid and investment earnings are less than the projected annual financial requirement (i.e., the annual cost of participating in the SVF Plan). When PERA determines whether the governing body owes a required contribution for a given year, we are statutorily required to assume that the fire department’s pension assets will earn a future annual rate of return of 6%. Therefore, even when the actual annual rate of return differs from 6%, PERA’s determination of any required contribution assumes that the future annual rate of return on the fire department’s pension assets will be 6%.
Communicate with PERA
Contact PERASVF@mnpera.org regarding any service credit, enrollment, or department related questions.
Fire Chief & Governing Body Dual Responsibilities
Update Contact Information
Whenever the fire department’s fire chief or governing body representative(s) change, email PERA at PERASVF@mnpera.org with the name, job title, email address, phone number, and mailing address of the new contact person as well as the name of the previous contact person being replaced. Please note that the governing body’s SVF Plan representative(s) must be employees of the governing body, such as a clerks, treasurers, or finance directors.
Provide SVF Plan Information to Volunteer Firefighters
PERA routinely communicates SVF Plan information to the fire department’s fire chief and governing body representative(s). We periodically ask these two contacts to share certain SVF Plan information with their volunteer firefighters. The fire chief and governing body should share SVF Plan information with others according to the data practices policies of the applicable governing body. Sharing SVF Plan information with your department’s volunteer firefighters is important. PERA does not provide volunteer firefighters with individual benefit calculations.