WRS Retirement Annuity to Increase in 2026

Retirees of the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) will receive an increase in their pension benefits this year.

The Core annuity will grow by 2.1%, while the Variable annuity will be adjusted by 18%.

Both adjustments will be made starting on retirees' May 1, 2026, annuity payments.

ETF Secretary John Voelker and ETF Board Chair William Ford recently approved the annuity adjustments based on calculations performed by the WRS consulting actuaries.

Sharing Benefit Risks

Risk-sharing is a fundamental component to the WRS being one of the few U.S. public employee pension systems to be consistently fully funded.

For retirees, this is represented by the fact that the WRS does not guarantee annual annuity adjustments. Any adjustment is based on the level of assets within the Trust Funds.

For the Core and Variable annuities, investment returns of more than 5% can produce an increase in a retiree's annuity. Investment returns below 5% may result in a decrease.

In 2025, the Core and Variable Funds returned 14.4% and 22.0%, respectively.

The Core Fund is invested in a fully diversified portfolio, with its returns recognized over a period of five years to smooth market volatility effects. Meanwhile, the Variable Fund is an all-stocks fund, with investment returns recognized annually.

By law, Core annuities will be increased if the annuity reserve surplus provides at least a 0.5% increase. Annuities will be reduced if a shortfall in this reserve would require at least a -0.5% adjustment.

For the Variable Fund, annuities will be reduced if the reserve shortfall requires at least a-2.0% adjustment. Conversely, these will be increased based on a 2% reserve surplus threshold.