Member News

Watch: VRS in 2025

VRS made meaningful progress in fiscal year 2025, advancing its mission to provide secure retirement benefits and responsive service to Virginia’s public servants. Watch the video for an overview of this past year’s achievements.

Highlights from FY 2025

• Strong financial performance: VRS ended the year with a trust fund valued at $123 billion and achieved a 9.9% investment return, outperforming benchmarks and maintaining progress toward full funding.
• Enhanced member experience: A new counseling center, upgraded call management system and dedicated customer experience manager improved access to personalized support and faster service.
• Supplemental savings transition: VRS successfully transitioned 1.4 million accounts and $8.85 billion in assets to a new defined contribution plan record keeper, giving members greater contribution flexibility, investment advice access and improved digital tools.

Read the Full Reports

For a deeper dive into VRS’ financial, investment and statistical performance, see:

• The Popular Annual Financial Report for an easy-to-read summary.
• The Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for detailed information.

Learn More About VRS

The VRS 101 offers a high-level overview of membership, funding and services.

Review Your Beneficiaries and Personal Information

You may have more than one VRS account, and it’s important to keep your contact details and beneficiary designations current in both. Doing so ensures your benefits go where you intend and that you receive important updates.

What to do:

1. Log in to myVRS to update your mailing address, email, and phone number and to review your primary beneficiary designations for your basic group life insurance and member contribution account.
2. If you participate in the Hybrid Retirement Plan, an optional retirement plan administered by VRS, the Virginia Cash Match Plan or the Commonwealth of Virginia 457 Deferred Compensation Plan, log in to your DCP Account to update beneficiaries for those accounts. You can also update emails and phone numbers.

Why this matters:

• Timely communication: Outdated addresses or emails can cause you to miss tax forms, benefit updates or security alerts.
• Account security: Accurate contact information helps VRS protect your account from unauthorized access.
• Beneficiary accuracy: Life events such as marriage, birth or adoption can affect who should receive your benefits. If your designations are outdated, benefits could be paid to an unintended recipient.

General Assembly Session Underway

The Virginia General Assembly convened January 14 for its 2026 legislative session. VRS is monitoring legislation that could affect member benefits and will provide updates as bills progress. You can track these measures on the Legislation page, and look for a summary in the May issue of Member News.

New IRS Catch-Up Rules Now in Effect

If you earn $150,000 or more in FICA wages (box 3 of your W-2), new IRS rules require that age-based catch-up contributions to the Commonwealth of Virginia 457 Deferred Compensation Plan be made as after-tax (Roth) contributions.

Catch-up contributions let you save beyond the standard IRS limit, and options vary by age.

Learn more: New IRS Rules for Catch-Up Contributions