State Auditor Julie Blaha Releases Fire Relief Association Financial and Investment Report- March 26, 2026

Contact: Nadine Kottom-Dale | 612-391-7000

State Auditor Julie Blaha Releases Fire Relief Association Financial and Investment Report

“Relief associations continued to see strong investment returns,” said State Auditor Julie Blaha. “The overall rate of return was 12.5% for the period covered in this report, helping relief association funding ratios to remain well over 100%.”

SAINT PAUL, Minn. – Today, State Auditor Julie Blaha released the 2024 Fire Relief Association Financial and Investment Report.

A fire relief association is a governmental entity that receives and manages public money used to provide retirement benefits to firefighters and first responders. The relief association is a separate entity from its affiliated city or town fire department and is governed by its own board of trustees. Relief associations have various reporting requirements with the Office of the State Auditor (OSA) as well as other state and federal agencies. They qualify to receive state aid based on the completion of these annual reports.

“Trustees need to remember that relief associations are not banks,” Auditor Blaha said. “While over 35% of relief associations increased lump sum benefit levels during the year, the funding sufficiency’s show there’s still room to raise retirement benefits and get surplus assets into the hands of firefighters.”

Some highlights from report include:

• Relief associations held $699.5 million in net assets at the end of 2024, representing accrued benefits for 14,253 firefighters.
• Relief associations received $29.9 million in state aid and $5.2 million in municipal contributions during 2024.
• A total of $39.7 million in service pensions was paid out by 262 different relief associations in 2024.
• The average lump sum benefit level for relief association members during 2024 was $2,756 per member, per year of service.

Most firefighters in Minnesota are volunteer or paid on-call firefighters and perform this essential public service while also having separate full-time jobs. Relief associations pay retirement benefits to these firefighters after they have completed a minimum length of fire department service and have met additional minimum requirements. Relief association service pensions are an important tool to help recruit and retain firefighters in Minnesota and reward them for their service to their local communities.

The complete report, including an Executive Summary, graphs and tables, is available on the OSA website.