Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Retirement and Pension Guide
You are in the Florida Retirement System, Special Risk Class. Your benefits are written in Tallahassee, not at a bargaining table, and two of them changed in ways that may let you retire five years earlier than you think.
Researched and verified October 2026 from Florida Statutes, the Division of Retirement, actuarial valuations, city ordinances and enrolled legislation. Where sources disagree, that is said plainly rather than smoothed over.
- Plan: Florida Retirement System, Special Risk Class
- Size: 2,057 budgeted full time positions, FY2026, up from 1,837 in FY2025
- Union: IAFF Local 2928
- Normal retirement: Age 55, or 25 years at any age, or 25 years and age 52
- Multiplier: 3.00% per year of Special Risk service
- You contribute: 3% of salary
Florida Retirement System, Special Risk Class
Normal retirement is age 55, not 60
If you were hired on or after July 1, 2011 and you believe you have to work until age 60, you are working off a rule that was repealed three years ago.
The 2011 pension law created a second Special Risk tier with normal retirement at age 60 or 30 years. Senate Bill 7024 in 2023, Chapter 2023-193, eliminated that tier effective July 1, 2023.
Florida Statute 121.021(29)(b) now applies to every Special Risk member regardless of hire date. Normal retirement is the earliest of age 55 with Special Risk service equal to your vesting requirement, 25 years of Special Risk service at any age, or 25 years and age 52 where up to four years of military service may count.
The only thing your hire date still changes is the vesting number feeding the age 55 option: 6 years if you enrolled before July 1, 2011, 8 years if on or after.
Be careful what you read. MyFRS's own publication "Understanding Your Benefits under the FRS Pension Plan," dated October 2022, still shows age 60 and 30 years, and parts of the MyFRS plan comparison pages contradict each other on this. The statute and the current Summary Plan Description are correct. If somebody tells you 60, ask them for the statute cite.
There is also a general service test: 30 years of any creditable service at any age if you enrolled before July 1, 2011, or 33 years if on or after.
The multiplier and your final pay
3.00% per year of Special Risk service for all service on or after January 1, 1993. Your benefit is average final compensation times 3% times years of Special Risk service.
| Enrolled | Average final compensation | Vesting |
|---|---|---|
| Before July 1, 2011 | Average of your 5 highest fiscal years | 6 years |
| On or after July 1, 2011 | Average of your 8 highest fiscal years | 8 years |
| FRS Investment Plan | Not applicable | 1 year |
Average final compensation includes payment for up to 500 hours of accumulated annual leave. It excludes sick leave payouts and bonuses.
What you pay, and what it actually costs
3% of salary, pre tax, unchanged since July 2011. DROP participants do not pay it. For context, your employer contributes 37.74% of your salary into Special Risk as of July 1, 2026. The full cost of the benefit is 40.74% of payroll.
DROP: three changes you may not know about
- Maximum participation went from 60 months to 96 months. Eight years, not five.
- The interest rate went from 1.3% to 4.00%, compounded monthly, for accumulations held on or after July 1, 2023. That applies to existing balances, not only to new entrants. If you entered DROP before June 30, 2023 you were earning 1.3%. You are now earning 4%.
- The twelve month election window is gone. You used to have to elect DROP within a year of reaching normal retirement or lose it. You can now enter at any time after reaching your normal retirement date.
As of September 1, 2026 your DROP begin date can be no sooner than the first day of the month after the Division of Retirement receives your application, and participation cannot be made retroactive. Plan the paperwork, not just the date.
New: a 1.5% COLA floor for Special Risk, effective July 1, 2026
The rule since 2011 has been harsh. If your retirement date is on or after August 1, 2011, your COLA is 3% times the fraction of your service earned before July 1, 2011 divided by total service. Service earned on or after July 1, 2011 earns no COLA at all. Someone hired in 2012 has been looking at zero percent for life.
House Bill 5205-E, Chapter 2026-235, establishes a minimum 1.5% annual COLA for eligible Special Risk retirees beginning July 1, 2026.
To qualify you must be a Special Risk member of the FRS Pension Plan with a retirement date on or after July 1, 2011, you must have been retired at least five years, and you must have 6 years of Special Risk service if enrolled before July 1, 2011 or 8 years if after. Members enrolled before July 2011 get the greater of 1.5% or the existing formula. Members enrolled after get a flat 1.5%.
This is the most meaningful improvement for post 2011 hires in fifteen years. It also means any retirement projection you ran before this summer is out of date.
Health Insurance Subsidy
Raised by SB 7024 effective July 1, 2023, for existing retirees as well as new ones: $7.50 per month per year of creditable service, with a minimum of $45 and a maximum of $225 per month. Thirty years reaches the cap. You must provide proof of health coverage, and payments are retroactive only six months, so apply promptly. The annual COLA does not apply to the subsidy.
Pension Plan or Investment Plan
You get one initial election, due by 4:00 p.m. on the last business day of the eighth month following your month of hire. If you do nothing, Special Risk defaults to the Pension Plan. Every other class defaults to the Investment Plan. That default exists because for a career firefighter the defined benefit is usually the stronger deal.
You also get one second election in your entire career, in either direction, and you must be actively employed and earning service credit to use it. Moving from Investment to Pension requires an actuarial buy in, and if your Investment Plan balance does not cover it you must pay the difference out of pocket within 60 days or the election is void. Once the effective month closes it is irrevocable.
How healthy is FRS
As of the July 1, 2025 valuation, 82.2% funded on an actuarial basis and 87.3% on market value, with $43.3 billion unfunded. The State Board of Administration projects full funding by about 2042. That is materially healthier than the local Chapter 175 plans in neighbouring cities.
Two things specific to Palm Beach County
The retiree insurance fund that is not a pension
The Palm Beach County Firefighters' Retirement Insurance Fund is a 501(c)(9) VEBA trust holding roughly $122 million in assets as of FY2024. It pays retirees a monthly cash benefit to offset health premiums, and it exists because the County offers retirees the same medical plans as active employees with no premium subsidy at all. The Board voted in November 2018 to raise the benefit by $75 a month effective January 2019.
This is separate from your FRS pension and separate from the state Health Insurance Subsidy. If you are building a retirement income picture and you have not counted it, you are leaving money out of your own math.
A legacy exception worth knowing about
A small closed group of members who came over from the old Lantana and Lake Worth fire departments are still in those cities' Chapter 175 plans, not FRS. If you were hired by Lantana or Lake Worth before the merger, your rules are different from the man standing next to you on the same rig. Your DROP, your multiplier and your retirement date all come from a city ordinance rather than from Chapter 121.
Five things worth acting on
- If you were hired after July 2011, recheck your retirement date. You may be able to go five years earlier than you thought.
- Rerun your numbers for the new 1.5% COLA floor. Any projection you ran before July 2026 is out of date.
- If you are already in DROP, confirm you are getting 4%. The increase from 1.3% applies to existing balances, not only to new entrants.
- Find out what the Retirement Insurance Fund pays you. It is real monthly income and it is easy to leave out.
- Price your health insurance for the gap between your last shift and age 65. The County subsidises nothing, which is exactly why the VEBA exists.
Questions to ask your plan, in writing
- What is my exact accrual rate for each period of my service?
- What is my projected average final compensation, and exactly which pay counts toward it?
- What is my normal retirement date under current law, and under what statute or ordinance?
- If I enter DROP, what interest rate applies to me specifically?
- What do I pay for health insurance the day after I retire, and what changes at 65?
- What happens to my spouse's income if I die first, and what does each survivor option cost me per month?
Ask in writing, and keep the answer. Several of the decisions on this page are permanent the moment you sign them.
Not every firefighter is in the same plan
Two of these four departments are in the state system and two are in local city plans. Same job, different rules about when you can go and who can change them.
- Florida Statutes Chapter 121, especially 121.021, 121.0515, 121.091 and 121.101
- Florida Statute 112.363, Retiree Health Insurance Subsidy
- FRS Pension Plan Summary Plan Description, as of July 1, 2026
- Senate Bill 7024 (2023), Chapter 2023-193
- House Bill 5205-E (2026), Chapter 2026-235
- Division of Retirement Information Releases 2026-240 and 2026-241
- FRS Actuarial Valuation Report, July 1, 2025
- myfrs.com and frs.fl.gov
- PBCFR Fact Sheet FY2026; Palm Beach County Human Resources, Retirement
- IAFF Local 2928 collective bargaining agreements, 2024 to 2027
- Palm Beach County Firefighters' Retirement Insurance Fund, IRS filings, EIN 65-0739528
I spent almost twenty years on the job before I did this
I am Mark Buckley, retired Miami-Dade Fire Rescue. I wrote Beyond The Firehouse because the same questions kept coming up in station kitchens and union halls and there was no plain language book that answered them for the fire service. If something here raised a question about your own situation, reach out. No cost, no pitch.
mark.buckley@prudential.com
305-608-2690