Updated October 30, 2026. Quick answer: The Louisiana Sheriffs’ Pension and Relief Fund does not pay an automatic cost of living adjustment to ordinary retirees. Its Board of Trustees may grant a permanent benefit increase when the law’s tests are met. The latest one the Board voted was 2%, approved on April 23, 2025. A 2027 increase is not set yet.
How an increase is granted
Louisiana law, R.S. 11:2178(K), says the Board decides: “The board of trustees is authorized to use earnings on investments of the fund in excess of normal requirements or funding deposit account credit balances as determined by the actuary and approved by the board of trustees, to provide a permanent benefit increase for retired and disabled members and survivors who have been receiving benefits from the fund for one full calendar year prior to the granting of the increase”. On the size of the increase, the statute says: “The permanent benefit increase shall be payable in a monthly amount not to exceed two and one-half percent of the normal monthly benefit payable to the retiree, disability recipient, or survivor on the date that the increase is granted.” It adds a dollar limit: “Except as provided in Item (ii) of this Subparagraph, the dollar amount of such increase for any recipient shall not exceed five percent of the average monthly benefit in payment to service retirees as of the end of the preceding fiscal year.” The cap has an exception: “The dollar amount of any permanent benefit increase for a recipient whose benefit is based on the record of someone who retired with a minimum of thirty years of creditable service shall not be subject to the cap contained in Item (i) of this Subparagraph of five percent of the average monthly benefit in payment to service retirees.” For recipients age sixty-five or older there is a separate option: “which increase shall consist of an amount equal to two percent of the monthly benefit the member is receiving on the date the increase is granted”.
Limits and who is left out
The Board cannot use both options in the same year, and it cannot grant back to back increases: “no permanent benefit increase shall be granted in any fiscal year pursuant to this Subsection if a permanent benefit increase has been granted pursuant to this Subsection in the immediately preceding fiscal year”. To be eligible, “Any member who has been retired for at least one year is eligible to receive a permanent benefit increase pursuant to the provisions of this Subsection if: (i) The member has attained the age of sixty-one regardless of the date of retirement.” “The member has not attained the age of sixty-one but has been retired for at least three years.”
The fund’s member handbook describes a different, member-elected route: “May elect to receive an actuarially reduced benefit to provide an automatic 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment annually.” That is a choice made at retirement and this page does not cover it. This page also does not cover any other Louisiana retirement system.
The latest increase
The Board’s April 23, 2025 minutes record the motion: “He recommended and asked for a motion to approve a 2% Permanent Benefit Increase to all eligible retirees, funded from the Funding Deposit Account, effective January 1, 2025, paid retroactively in July 2025.” The October 21, 2025 minutes summarize it this way: “2% Permanent benefit increase approved by the Board and processed in June 2025, retroactive to January 1, 2025”. The two documents differ on the payment month, July or June 2025, and this page does not resolve that.
Where 2027 stands
No 2027 increase is set yet: the statute authorizes the Board of Trustees to grant one, and this page updates when the Sheriffs’ Pension and Relief Fund publishes a new Board decision. The newest Board minutes the state posts are from December 17, 2025, and they show no further increase. No 2026 Board minutes or fund notice could be found, so any 2026 decision is unknown, and no source says when a Board vote on a new increase would happen.
Common mistakes
- Expecting a yearly raise. The statute lets the Board grant an increase but does not require one, and a grant in one fiscal year bars one in the next.
- Treating the 2025 increase as a pattern. It is one Board vote, and nothing in the sources read shows another is planned.
- Mixing up the two routes. The Board’s discretionary increase and the member-elected reduced benefit with an automatic adjustment are different things.
Related: Louisiana Sheriffs’ Pension Fund retirement decisions, how public pension decisions work, and whether Louisiana taxes pensions.
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Answer againSources
- Louisiana State Legislature, La. R.S. 11:2178 (Disability benefits; retirement benefits; death benefits), subsection K: www.legis.la.gov
- Sheriffs’ Pension and Relief Fund (state Boards and Commissions), Louisiana Sheriffs’ Pension & Relief Fund Member Handbook: wwwcfprd.doa.louisiana.gov
- Sheriffs’ Pension and Relief Fund Board of Trustees (state Boards and Commissions), LSPRF Board minutes, April 23, 2025: wwwcfprd.doa.louisiana.gov
- Sheriffs’ Pension and Relief Fund Board of Trustees (state Boards and Commissions), LSPRF Board minutes, October 21, 2025: wwwcfprd.doa.louisiana.gov
- Related official page (not quoted): IRS Tax Topic 410, Pensions and annuities: www.irs.gov
- Related official page (not quoted): IRS Tax Topic 411, Pensions: the General Rule and the Simplified Method: www.irs.gov
Read from the primary documents linked above on October 30, 2026. General information, not tax advice. Your own facts decide the outcome, and a preparer or the IRS itself is the right place to confirm anything consequential.