Creve Coeur Police Pension Fund places 536th among Illinois’ most underfunded public safety pension systems in 2024

In 2024, the Creve Coeur Police Pension Fund ranked 536th among the most underfunded police and fire pension systems in Illinois, based on data from the Illinois Department of Insurance (IDOI).

Operating within Illinois’ Village or Township pension structure, the fund reported total pension liabilities of $2,962,592 and an actuarial asset value of $2,643,441.

With a funding ratio of 89.2%, the fund was 10.8% short of the actuarial assets needed to fully support promised retirement payments.

This gap resulted in about $319,151 in unfunded liabilities for the pension system.

The Illinois Department of Insurance gathers and makes public data on local police and fire pension funds, which are supported financially by residents in individual municipalities.

As of 2024, Illinois maintained 300 fire and 363 police pension funds, with some municipalities handling both, while others oversee just one.

There are municipalities without any unfunded pension debt. For 2024, 64 municipalities reported no outstanding police or fire pension obligations and were not included in the rankings.

Obligations related to police and fire pensions, often called “pension benefits,” are treated as deferred compensation. While municipal officials promise to fund retirement benefits for public safety workers, these pledges are sometimes made without securing sufficient contributions from workers or taxpayers. This shortfall results in growing municipal pension debt, thus shifting the responsibility to future residents. Municipalities make annual contributions, funded primarily by property taxes, and this information can be found in IDOI’s data collection.

Statewide, Illinois police and fire pension funds had an average funding ratio of 65.1% in 2024, reflecting significant gaps in local public safety retirement coverage.

The Glencoe Firefighters Pension Fund held the lowest funding ratio statewide at only 0.9%.

Savoy Firefighters Pension Fund had the highest funding ratio in Illinois at 797.7%, with an actuarial asset value of $149,803, well above its liabilities.

Illinois’ total pension debt rose by $1.5 billion in 2024 to reach $143.7 billion, according to the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability. This marked the third consecutive year of increases and left the debt just below its 20-year record high of $144.2 billion set in 2020.

A State Department of Insurance Public Pension Division report found that suburban and downstate Illinois pension funds had $12.1 billion in unfunded actuarial liabilities in 2024, with a total funding ratio of 49.18%. This means they were missing over half of the necessary assets for pension obligations.

In 2024, Illinois allocated the largest share of its GDP to unfunded pension liabilities of any state, just under 20%, according to an Equable Institute study.

The Illinois Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, said that this trend is putting a growing fiscal strain on taxpayers. The group noted that taxpayer contributions to state pension programs increased from $614 million in fiscal 1996 to $11.2 billion in fiscal 2025.

Data in this report originates from the Illinois Department of Insurance (IDOI). Source information can be found here.