SUMMARY

ETF chose to separately issue financial statements and employer schedules for certain programs it administered. We audited these financial statements and employer schedules as they were prepared by ETF and provided information about these programs in the following reports we issued in September 2025:

• Wisconsin Retirement System (report 25-16);
• Wisconsin Retirement System Reporting for Participating Employers (report 25-17);
• Retiree Life Insurance Programs (report 25-18);
• State Retiree Life Insurance Reporting for the State of Wisconsin (report 25-19);
• Local Retiree Life Insurance Reporting for Participating Employers (report 25-20);
• Supplemental Health Insurance Conversion Credit Program (report 25-21); and
• Supplemental Health Insurance Conversion Credit Program Reporting for Participating Employers (report 25-22).

We have provided this information again in this report to assist the users of the financial statements that are now presented in ETF’s ACFR.

The WRS is one of the 10 largest public pension plans in the United States. As shown in the chart, the WRS fiduciary net position, which represents the resources available to pay current and future pension benefits, increased from $127.7 billion as of December 31, 2023, to $134.5 billion as of December 31, 2024, or by 5.4 percent. The fiduciary net position as of December 31 was $125.0 billion for 2020,  $141.8 billion for 2021, and $118.4 billion for 2022. 

ETF reported a net pension liability of $1.6 billion as of December 31, 2024. The WRS has reported a net pension liability in three of the past five years. We collected information from other pension plans that were part of the WRS peer group and found that the WRS had a funded ratio of 98.8 percent, which was the highest among these plans.

Other postemployment benefits (OPEB) refer to the benefits, other than pensions, that a state or local government employee may receive after they have left employment, generally upon retirement. An OPEB plan can include medical, pharmacy, dental, vision, and other health-related benefits. The five OPEB plans administered by ETF are the State Retiree Life Insurance program, the Local Retiree Life Insurance program, the Supplemental Health Insurance Conversion Credit (SHICC) program, the State Retiree Health Insurance program, and the Local Retiree Health Insurance program.

The State Retiree Life Insurance and Local Retiree Life Insurance programs provide postemployment life insurance coverage to all eligible employees of participating employers. As of December 31, 2024, the fiduciary net position of the State Retiree Life Insurance program was $272.7 million and the fiduciary net position of the Local Retiree Life Insurance program was $231.8 million.

As of December 31, 2024, the net OPEB liability for each of these programs was:

• $709.2 million for the State Retiree Life Insurance program; and
• $391.2 million for the Local Retiree Life Insurance program

The SHICC program provides certain eligible employees additional sick leave hours at the time of termination that increases the balance available to pay for health insurance premiums.

The SHICC fiduciary net position increased from $1.2 billion as of December 31, 2023, to $1.3 billion as of December 31, 2024. As of December 31, 2024, the net OPEB liability of the SHICC program was $15.0 million.

The State Retiree Health Insurance program and the Local Retiree Health Insurance program do not accumulate assets dedicated to providing benefits to plan members. The OPEB liabilities for these programs are not calculated by ETF for purposes of financial reporting.