Florida Statute 175.261 - Full Text and Legal Analysis

The 2025 Florida Statutes

Title XII
MUNICIPALITIES

Chapter 175
FIREFIGHTER PENSIONS

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175.261 Annual report to Division of Retirement; actuarial valuations.—For any municipality, special fire control district, chapter plan, local law municipality, local law special fire control district, or local law plan under this chapter, the board of trustees for every chapter plan and local law plan shall submit the following reports to the division:

(1) With respect to chapter plans:

(a) Each year, by February 1, the chair or secretary of the board of trustees of each firefighters’ pension trust fund operating under a chapter plan shall file a report with the division which contains:

1. A statement of whether in fact the municipality or special fire control district is within the provisions of s. 175.041.

2. An independent audit by a certified public accountant if the fund has $250,000 or more in assets, or a certified statement of accounting if the fund has less than $250,000 in assets, for the most recent plan year, showing a detailed listing of assets and methods used to value them and a statement of all income and disbursements during the year. Such income and disbursements shall be reconciled with the assets at the beginning and end of the year.

3. A statistical exhibit showing the total number of firefighters on the force, the number included in the retirement plan and the number ineligible, classified according to the reason for their being ineligible, and the number of disabled firefighters and retired firefighters and their beneficiaries receiving pension payments and the amounts of annual retirement income or pension payments being received by them.

4. A statement of the amount the municipality or special fire control district, or other income source, has contributed to the retirement fund for the most recent plan year and the amount the municipality or special fire control district will contribute to the retirement fund during its current plan year.

5. If any benefits are insured with a commercial insurance company, the report should include a statement of the relationship of the insured benefits to the benefits provided by this chapter as well as the name of the insurer and information about the basis of premium rates, mortality table, interest rates, and method used in valuing retirement benefits.

(b) In addition to annual reports provided under paragraph (a), by February 1 of each triennial year, an actuarial valuation of the chapter plan must be made by the division at least once every 3 years, as provided in s. 112.63, commencing 3 years from the last actuarial valuation of the plan or system for existing plans, or commencing 3 years from issuance of the initial actuarial impact statement submitted under s. 112.63 for newly created plans. To that end, the chair of the board of trustees for each firefighters’ pension trust fund operating under a chapter plan shall report to the division such data as it needs to complete an actuarial valuation of each fund. The forms for each municipality and special fire control district shall be supplied by the division. The expense of this actuarial valuation shall be borne by the firefighters’ pension trust fund established by ss. 175.041 and 175.121. The requirements of this section are supplemental to the actuarial valuations necessary to comply with s. 218.39.

(2) With respect to local law plans:

(a) Each year, on or before March 15, the trustees of the retirement plan shall submit the following information to the division in order for the retirement plan of such municipality or special fire control district to receive a share of the state funds for the then-current calendar year:

1. A certified copy of each and every instrument constituting or evidencing the plan. This includes the formal plan, including all amendments, the trust agreement, copies of all insurance contracts, and formal announcement material.

2. An independent audit by a certified public accountant if the fund has $250,000 or more in assets, or a certified statement of accounting if the fund has less than $250,000 in assets, for the most recent plan year, showing a detailed listing of assets and a statement of all income and disbursements during the year. Such income and disbursements must be reconciled with the assets at the beginning and end of the year.

3. A certified statement listing the investments of the plan and a description of the methods used in valuing the investments.

4. A statistical exhibit showing the total number of firefighters, the number included in the plan, and the number ineligible classified according to the reasons for their being ineligible, and the number of disabled and retired firefighters and their beneficiaries receiving pension payments and the amounts of annual retirement income or pension payments being received by them.

5. A certified statement describing the methods, factors, and actuarial assumptions used in determining the cost.

6. A certified statement by an enrolled actuary showing the results of the latest actuarial valuation of the plan and a copy of the detailed worksheets showing the computations used in arriving at the results.

7. A statement of the amount the municipality or special fire control district, or other income source, has contributed toward the plan for the most recent plan year and will contribute toward the plan for the current plan year.

When any of the items required hereunder is identical to the corresponding item submitted for a previous year, it is not necessary for the trustees to submit duplicate information if they make reference to the item in the previous year’s report.

(b) In addition to annual reports provided under paragraph (a), an actuarial valuation of the retirement plan must be made at least once every 3 years, as provided in s. 112.63, commencing 3 years from the last actuarial valuation of the plan or system for existing plans, or commencing 3 years from issuance of the initial actuarial impact statement submitted under s. 112.63 for newly created plans. Such valuation shall be prepared by an enrolled actuary, subject to the following conditions:

1. The assets shall be valued as provided in s. 112.625(9).

2. The cost of the actuarial valuation must be paid by the individual firefighters’ retirement fund or by the sponsoring municipality or special fire control district.

3. A report of the valuation, including actuarial assumptions and type and basis of funding, shall be made to the division within 3 months after the date of valuation. If any benefits are insured with a commercial insurance company, the report must include a statement of the relationship of the retirement plan benefits to the insured benefits, the name of the insurer, the basis of premium rates, and the mortality table, interest rate, and method used in valuing the retirement benefits.

History.—s. 1, ch. 63-249; s. 4, ch. 65-58; ss. 13, 35, ch. 69-106; s. 17, ch. 81-168; s. 15, ch. 86-41; s. 31, ch. 93-193; s. 928, ch. 95-147; s. 7, ch. 96-324; s. 27, ch. 99-1; s. 42, ch. 2001-266; s. 15, ch. 2004-305; s. 50, ch. 2023-8.

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Amendments to 175.261

Annotations, Discussions, Cases:

Cases Citing Statute 175.261

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Florida League of Cities, Inc. v. Dep't of Ins. & Treasurer, 540 So. 2d 850 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989).

Cited 11 times | Published | Florida 1st District Court of Appeal | 1989 WL 15937

...(Emphasis added.) The Department's Answer Brief states, at page 21, that section 175.321, as it read during the period 1963-1986, *860 made the following sections of chapter 175 inapplicable to local law plans: sections 175.061, 175.071, 175.041, 175.091, 175.162, 175.181, 175.191, 175.251, 175.261, 175.291, and 175.301....

...ce with the applicable requirements of Chapter 175 and Section 175.351, Florida Statutes, prior to distribution of Chapter 175 tax revenues. If *861 in the opinion of the Department of Insurance the information supplied by a municipality pursuant to Section 175.261 or 175.351(12) is inadequate for the Department to perform an actuarial valuation, or review an actuarial valuation, to determine the financial condition of the fund, or to otherwise determine whether a municipality is in compliance w...

...nished and may request that an independent audit be performed by a Certified Public Accountant selected by the Department. The expense of any such audit shall be borne by the Department. This rule was promulgated to implement, among others, sections 175.261, 175.321, and 175.351....

...The City objects to the validity of this part of the rule on grounds that the Department does not have statutory authority "to perform" or "to review" an actuarial valuation of local law plans and demand that a separate audit be performed by an independent certified public accountant. Primarily, the City argues that section 175.261 is applicable only to chapter plans and contains provisions that require the trustees of such plans to file an independent audit with the Department each year....

...information be supplied to the Department for review only to permit the Department to insure that the City has complied with this statutory provision by having the valuation performed by others as required. The City argues emphatically that neither section 175.261 nor 175.351 authorizes the Department to determine the adequacy of the actuarial valuations submitted and to perform a new valuation, or to require an independent audit by a certified public accountant selected by the Department, as the challenged rule provides....

...The Department of Insurance clearly is *862 authorized to insure compliance with subsections 1 through 12 of Section 175.351, pursuant to subsection 13, and this includes the requirement of actuarial soundness found in subsections 9 and 10. In addition Section 175.261(2), Florida Statutes, references the report of information to the Department which "it needs to complete an actuarial valuation of each fund." It is apparent that the Legislature intended that the Department review the financial condition and actuarial soundness of both chapter and local law funds. To interpret Sections 175.261 and 175.351 otherwise would be to render them meaningless, and statutes should be construed in a manner that avoids a meaningless result. [Citation omitted.] The rules as proposed have therefore not been shown to be invalid. (R. 518). We hold that the hearing officer erred in treating section 175.261 as applicable to local law plans....

...Department has no further responsibility to pass judgment on the substance of that valuation. For this reason, the Department's proposed rule exceeds the statutory authority found in section 175.351. Contrary to the hearing officer's conclusion that section 175.261 is rendered meaningless if not applied to local law plans, that section is given full effect when applied to chapter plans....

...Department of Transportation, 499 So.2d 855 (Fla. 1st DCA), rev. denied, 509 So.2d 1117 (Fla. 1987). [9] We cannot now uphold this rule on the basis of uncited statutory authority. Rule 4-54.041 Rule 4-54.041 deals with the report to the Department required by section 175.261 and proposes to make that section "applicable to all Chapter Funds and all Local Law Funds." Additionally, the proposed rule provides: (2) In addition to any other report required under Section 175.261, Florida Statutes, or Section 4-54.011 of these rules, every statement of disbursement required to be filed each year by municipalities *866 receiving Chapter 175 tax revenue shall reflect all changes to the fund including but not limited to administrative or handling fees paid to insurance companies or investment managers. (3) The certified public accountant to which reference is made in Section 175.261(1)(b), Florida Statutes, shall be independent of the municipality and the board of trustees. The City and the League object to the validity of this rule on grounds that section 175.261 is not applicable to local law plans but is applicable only to chapter plans and has been so treated for many years. They argue that since 1963 chapter 175 has contained two separate reporting sections applicable, respectively, to chapter plans and to local law plans. Chapter plans have been required to report to the Department of Insurance in accordance with section 175.261....

...mount of income contributed by the municipality or other source to the plan for the most recent, as well as the current, fiscal year. The City points out that the most significant difference between the reporting requirements for chapter plans under section 175.261 and local law plans under 175.351 is that chapter plans have to provide sufficient information to allow the Department to perform its own actuarial review, while local law plans have to provide a completed actuarial valuation made by others....

...ithhold tax moneys from local law plans if, in its opinion, the information provided under section 175.351 is insufficient for the Department itself to perform an actuarial valuation. The Department, it is argued, thereby invalidly attempts to apply section 175.261 to local law plans in direct conflict with section 175.351, which does not give the department such authority. Our discussion of the validity of proposed rule 4-54.029(2), supra, applies to the validity of rule 4-54.041. The Department admits section 175.261 was not applicable to local law plans prior to 1986 (see rule 4-54.045 at p. 859, supra). Nothing in chapter 175 as amended in 1986 expressly makes section 175.261 applicable to local law plans, and we have held invalid the Department's and the hearing officer's implications from amended section 175.021 as authority to do so. Additionally, we note that section 175.261 contains several express provisions that indicate applicability only to chapter plans....

...ncy of the Department's economic impact statement accompanying the proposed rules under review pursuant to section 120.54(2). The parties stipulated, and the hearing officer found, that the application of sections 175.071, 175.081, 175.191, 175.231, 175.261, 175.333 and 175.361 to local law plans would have a significant economic impact, as defined in section 120.54, on a number of local law plans, including those of the City....

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