What FPPA Leadership States

• The D&D Plan has $58.5 million in liabilities exceeding current assets as of January 1, 2025.
• Current contribution rates fall short of the plan's current cost.
• Paying COLAs would "place additional financial strain" on the plan and is "imprudent" given current funded status.
• Occupationally disabled members are assumed to retain the ability to work and therefore do not require the same COLA protections.

What the Public Record Shows

The fund is not in crisis.

The Statewide Retirement Plan is 100% funded as of January 1, 2025. FPPA’s Long-Term Investment Pool earned 10.03% net of fees in 2024 — well above the 6.5% five-year average required to trigger supplemental payments for SRP retirees. The fund’s fiduciary net position grew by $550 million in 2024 alone, reaching $7.37 billion. The Death & Disability Plan itself is 91.4% funded — a level that, by pension industry standards, represents a reasonably healthy financial position. (Sources: FPPA website; FPPA PensionCheck Newsletter, 2025)

The organization compensates its own generously.

Over five years (2021–2025), total tracked staff compensation reached $32.85 million. The FPPA Board approved a 20% annual retention bonus for all executive team members for five consecutive years (2022–2026). The Executive Director’s base salary grew 33.1% — from $341,960 to $455,000 — and the CIO’s grew 33.5% — from $331,500 to $442,500. In 2021, the highest bonus year in the five-year dataset, investment team roles alone received $520,226 — 75.6% of the entire annual bonus pool. (Sources: CORA Request, July 14 and September 23, 2025; FPPA Board Minutes, December 12, 2024)

The COLA policy is a choice — not a financial necessity.

From 1980 through 2016, the FPPA Board granted benefit adjustments to occupationally disabled retirees for 36 consecutive years. The current policy of 0% for those with fewer than 15 years on benefit is not a founding principle of the plan — it was adopted in 2020. In 2021, when CPI reached 7.0%, and in 2022, when it reached 8.5% — the highest in four decades — the Board awarded those retirees a COLA of exactly zero. Since 2017, cumulative CPI has been approximately 29.7%. Occupationally disabled retirees with fewer than 15 years on benefit have received $0.00 in compounding cost-of-living adjustments over that entire period. (Source: Statewide D&D COLA History, official FPPA document)

The human cost compounds over time.

FPPA’s own actuaries found that public safety retirees live an average of 19.3 years after reaching age 65 — more than two years longer than the general population. A fixed benefit losing nearly 30% of its purchasing power over a retirement that may last two to three decades is not a temporary hardship. It is a permanent and growing one. Colorado’s cost of living has risen approximately 36.5% since 2015. (Source: FPPA PensionCheck Newsletter, 2025 — Actuarial Insight; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025)

In FPPA’s Own Words 

The following statements are drawn directly from FPPA’s own official publications — its 2025 PensionCheck Newsletter and its Annual Rates by Plan document. They are presented here without commentary.

On Serving Injured First Responders

“Early in my time here, we modernized aspects of the Death & Disability Plan to better support first responders who get injured — an example of this is when we expanded coverage to include both temporary and permanent occupational disabilities.”

— FPPA Executive Director, PensionCheck Newsletter, 2025

On FPPA’s Financial Strength

“FPPA, as an organization, is incredibly strong. To me, that means we can help provide peace of mind for the brave people that put their lives on the line when we most desperately need help.”

—FPPA Executive Director, PensionCheck Newsletter, 2025

In 2024, FPPA’s investment fund grew by over $550 million. The Long-Term Pool earned 10.03% net of fees. The Statewide Retirement Plan is 100% funded. For occupationally disabled retirees with fewer than 15 years on benefit, the cost-of-living adjustment that same year was 0%.

On the Importance of Retirement Benefits

In its 2025 member survey, FPPA asked active and retired members why they chose to become first responders. ‘Retirement benefits’ ranked in the top five answers for both firefighters and police officers. FPPA highlighted this finding with pride in its newsletter, noting it was “pleased that retirement benefits cracked the top five.” (Source: FPPA PensionCheck Newsletter, 2025 — Mission Moment)

A retirement benefit that has lost more than 36.5% of its purchasing power since 2015 — with no compounding COLA for certain injured retirees — is not the benefit those officers and firefighters believed they were earning.

Sources: FPPA PensionCheck Newsletter (2025); FPPA Annual Rates by Plan Announced for 2026 (6/24/2025). All quotes are reproduced from official FPPA publications for public policy discussion purposes.

Source: FPPA Annual Rates by Plan Announced for 2026, published 6/24/2025. Inflation does not distinguish between categories of disability. The cost of groceries, healthcare, and housing rises equally for every retiree.

State-by-State Comparison

COLA Policies for Disability Retirees Across Comparable Public Safety Pension Systems

Of seven comparable public safety pension systems reviewed across the United States — including Arizona, Washington, Minnesota, California (Los Angeles), Illinois, New York, and Texas — Colorado FPPA is the only one among those reviewed that conditions COLA eligibility for occupationally disabled members on a 15-year waiting period, and the only one that withholds all compounding COLAs from a category of duty-injured retirees while the fund’s broader retirement plan is 100% funded. None of the seven peer systems impose a comparable threshold, and most apply a uniform COLA to all retirees — including disability recipients — without distinguishing between disability categories.

Research compiled May 2026 · Sources: Official pension fund websites, state statutes, and member handbooks.

Bonus & Incentive Trends (2021–2025)

Between 2021 and 2025 — the same five years during which occupationally disabled retirees with fewer than 15 years on benefit received no compounding COLA — FPPA distributed $32,854,218 in total staff compensation, including $2,717,336 in bonus and incentive pay, to a workforce of approximately 68 full-time employees.

(Sources: CORA Request, July 14 and September 23, 2025; FPPA Board Minutes, December 12, 2024)

Records reflect individual bonus/incentive payment records. A single role may appear more than once if it received multiple payments in the same year. The 2024 figure represents the full organizational roster of 70 positions. Record counts are not directly comparable across years.

Additional Compensation Facts (2022-2026)

• The FPPA Board approved a 20% annual retention incentive for all Executive Team members for five consecutive years (2022–2026), with staggered vesting schedules. (Source: FPPA Board Minutes, December 12, 2024)
• Across all five years, the top roles consistently accounted for a disproportionate share of bonus expenditure. In 2025, the top three earners received 53.1%. (Source: CORA Request, 2025)
• The bonus-to-salary ratio for the organization’s top earners has been substantial throughout the period. (Source: CORA Request, 2025)

All compensation figures are presented solely to provide context regarding organizational compensation practices and policy priorities, and not to reflect on any individual’s character, integrity, or professional performance. The figures referenced herein are derived entirely from publicly available records, including FPPA Board minutes and records obtained through Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) requests. The information is presented for informational and public policy discussion purposes as it relates to FPPA’s stated financial position and the absence of cost-of-living adjustments for certain occupationally disabled retirees.

Why This Policy Must Change

The current COLA policy fails the first responders it was designed to serve.

• Fails to reflect the long-term consequences of duty-related injuries — whether physical, psychological, or financial.
• Creates avoidable financial instability for those who can no longer serve due to line-of-duty disability.
• Applies outdated assumptions about earning capacity that do not align with today’s medical, economic, or public safety realities.
• Undermines FPPA’s own principles of providing basic financial security in retirement and administering benefits impartially.

Colorado’s public safety retirees deserve a system that evolves with the times. It is time for FPPA leadership and state lawmakers to modernize this policy — ensuring that all occupationally disabled members receive equitable, inflation-protected benefits that honor their service and sacrifice.

This is not an unprecedented policy reversal — it is a restoration of historical practice. From 1980 through 2016, the FPPA Board consistently granted benefit adjustments to all occupationally disabled retirees for 36 consecutive years. Some years the adjustment was modest; some years it tracked CPI at or near 3%. But in every one of those 36 years, the Board recognized that a fixed benefit erodes without adjustment and acted accordingly. The Board has done it before. The precedent exists in FPPA’s own records. What changed was not the fund’s ability — it was the Board’s policy. (Source: Statewide D&D COLA History, official FPPA document)

Why This Affects All First Responders—Now and in the Future

This is not a retired person’s problem. It is a public safety policy problem. The protections available to today’s injured retirees are the protections tomorrow’s active officers and firefighters will inherit.

It ignores the long-term consequences of duty-related injury.

Occupational disability resulting from line-of-duty service carries lasting physical, psychological, and financial consequences that do not diminish over time. A fixed benefit that loses purchasing power every year compounds that harm indefinitely.

It applies outdated assumptions about earning capacity.

FPPA’s position assumes occupationally disabled retirees can still work in some capacity. This assumption does not reflect today’s medical, economic, or public safety realities — and it is not a standard the organization appears to apply to its own compensation decisions.

It creates avoidable financial instability for those who served.

Colorado’s cost of living has risen approximately 36.5% since 2015 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025). A retiree receiving the same fixed benefit today has absorbed an equivalent cut in purchasing power. This is the daily reality for hundreds of injured retirees and their families.

It creates inequitable distinctions between equally deserving retirees.

Totally disabled members receive a guaranteed 3.0% COLA annually. Occupationally disabled members — who were also injured in the line of duty — receive nothing, or a one-time 1.0% adjustment only after 15 years. Inflation does not distinguish between categories of disability.

It undermines commitments made to those who served.

FPPA’s stated mission is to serve the first responders who protect Colorado’s communities. Denying fair cost-of-living adjustments to those injured doing exactly that — while the organization’s overall financial position remains strong — is inconsistent with that mission.

It affects every active-duty officer and firefighter, today and tomorrow.

Every first responder currently on active duty lives one call away from a career-ending injury. Reforming this policy now is an investment in every first responder’s future.

The financial harm compounds over decades.

FPPA’s own actuaries found that public safety retirees live an average of 19.3 years after reaching age 65 — more than two years longer than the general population. For an occupationally disabled officer or firefighter who retires at 45 or 50 due to a duty injury, a fixed, inflation-unprotected benefit may need to last 30 years or more. FPPA’s own research confirms these retirees will be living with the consequences for a very long time. (Source: FPPA PensionCheck Newsletter, 2025 — Actuarial Insight)

Who Is Receiving COLAs—and Who Is Being Left Out?

As of 2025, not all FPPA retirees are treated equally when it comes to cost-of-living adjustments — and the differences are significant.

Occupationally disabled retirees under the Statewide Death & Disability (SWDD) Plan are not eligible for compounding COLAs unless they have received benefits for at least 15 years. In 2025, the FPPA Board approved a one-time 1.0% benefit adjustment — effective October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026 only — for those who meet that threshold. Retirees with fewer than 15 years on benefit receive nothing. The Board cited the plan’s funded status of 91.4% as of January 1, 2025 as one factor in its decision — a funding level that, by pension industry standards, is not indicative of a plan in crisis. (Source: Fire & Police Pension Association of Colorado, 2025)

By contrast, members classified as totally disabled receive a guaranteed 3.0% COLA every year by law, regardless of how long they have been receiving benefits. In 2025, Statewide Retirement Plan (SRP) retirees received both a 0.27% compounding COLA and a 2.63% one-time lump sum payment. (Source: Fire & Police Pension Association of Colorado, 2025)

The disparity is not a matter of financial necessity — it is a policy choice. Inflation does not distinguish between categories of disability. The cost of groceries, healthcare, and housing rises equally for every retiree, regardless of how the FPPA Board has classified their condition.

The Purchasing Power Loss Since 2017: A Year-by-Year Record

The table below is drawn entirely from FPPA’s own Statewide D&D COLA History document. It shows the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for each year alongside the benefit adjustment awarded to occupationally disabled retirees with fewer than 15 years on benefit. The difference between those two columns is purchasing power permanently lost.

Source: Statewide D&D COLA History document (official FPPA record). CPI figures reflect the year-end CPI as reported in FPPA’s own document. The 0% award for those with fewer than 15 years on benefit is confirmed by footnote in the same document.

In 2021 and 2022 — when Colorado’s cost of living rose by 7.0% and 8.5%, the highest rates in four decades — occupationally disabled retirees with fewer than 15 years on benefit received a cost-of-living adjustment of exactly zero. Those same years, FPPA’s Long-Term Investment Pool was generating returns well above its target rate.

A retiree who has been on occupational disability benefit since 2017 — now eight years in, still under the 15-year threshold — has watched nearly 30% of their fixed benefit’s purchasing power disappear. That is not a projection. It is the cumulative result of the CPI figures and COLA awards recorded in FPPA’s own documents, year by year.