About Teachers' Retirement System

Mission

To promote long-term financial security for our members while proactively maintaining the stability of the system.

Vision

The Montana Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) is the trusted partner for retirement services and security. TRS strives to earn the respect of our members, the public education community, and citizens of Montana. We accomplish this by communicating effectively to our constituents, being responsive to their needs, and employing an effective and empowered professional staff and board well-versed in state and national issues impacting our members.

Guiding Principles

To earn the respect and trust of our members, we adhere to the following values:

High ethical standards.
Honesty, integrity, and impartiality.
Dignity, respect, and mutual support.
Service excellence.

TRS Board

TRS is governed by a six-member Board appointed for a five-year term by the Governor. Information on Board meetings, members, minutes, and policies can be found on the TRS Board section of the website.

TRS Staff

The TRS staff is organized into five departments: Administrative, Active Members, Benefit Recipients, Accounting, and Information Technology.

Public Information Requests

A law passed by the 2023 Montana Legislature (SB 232) established the Office of Public Information Requests (OPIR) to promote consistency and efficiency in responding to requests for public information. All executive branch agencies, including TRS, have designated OPIR as their contact for such requests.

All requests for public information from TRS must be submitted through the OPIR website.

History

The Montana Teachers' Retirement System was established by state law in 1937 with an initial enrollment of 3,367 members. As of fiscal year 2023, TRS provides benefits and service to approximately 50,000 active, inactive and retired members. See our Home page for statistics on TRS benefits paid out during the last fiscal year.

Historical documents can be found on the archive.org website.

Purpose

TRS serves active and retired teachers, school administrators and other educators in Montana's public school system. Its primary purpose is to administer their pension plan, which includes payment of retirement benefits, collection of member contributions and enrollment of new members.

The TRS is a Defined Benefit Plan qualified under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) 401(a). Membership in TRS is compulsory for all K-12 public educators, except for persons who have not worked in a TRS-reportable position for at least thirty days in a single fiscal year.

An actuarial valuation of the retirement system is performed annually, with an effective date of July 1. The purpose of the annual valuation is to determine the financial position of the fund, the normal cost, and the unfunded actuarial accrued liability based upon present and prospective assets and liabilities of the system.