# West Virginia Natural Resources Police Officers Retirement System

West Virginia Natural Resources Police Officers Retirement System is a Pension Fund based in Charleston, United States.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Pension Fund
- **Headquarters:** Charleston, United States
- **Region:** North America
- **Address:** Charleston, WV, United States
- **Founded:** 2021
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed
- **Website:** wvretirement.com
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/west-virginia-consolidated-public-retirement-board

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

West Virginia lawmakers created the Natural Resources Police Officers Retirement System (NRPORS) with an effective date of January 2, 2021, carving out a dedicated pension vehicle for conservation officers hired on or after that date. The separation reflects a broader state trend of establishing tiered, occupation-specific retirement plans. Active members contribute 9.5% of gross monthly salary pre-tax, while the employer contributes an additional 12%. Vesting requires 120 months of covered service. The CPRB, led by Executive Director Jeffrey Fleck, administers the plan, but investment management is outsourced to the West Virginia Investment Management Board under CIO Craig Slaughter. The NRPORS does not run a proprietary portfolio. Its assets are commingled across WVIMB investment pools, which allocate across public equities, fixed income, real assets, private equity, and private credit. The WVIMB reported approximately $20 billion in total assets under management across all state retirement systems in mid-2023, with exposures to Blackstone infrastructure funds, Apollo credit vehicles, and externally managed emerging-market equity mandates. NRPORS represents a de minimis fraction of that pool. The officers it covers are the law enforcement arm of the state's Division of Natural Resources — game wardens and waterway patrol — whose pension timeline mirrors state-employee norms for career length and post-retirement life expectancy. In September 2023 State Treasurer Riley Moore assumed chairmanship of the WVIMB Board of Trustees, overseeing the governance layer that approves asset allocation for all participating plans, including NRPORS. The board also counts Governor Jim Justice and State Auditor JB McCuskey among its ex-officio members. The CPRB holds membership in the Government Finance Officers Association and the National Association of State Retirement Administrators, signaling standard public-plan peer engagement rather than a distinct investment-industry footprint. The system remains too small and too new to produce standalone actuarial valuations that diverge materially from the state's aggregate retirement assumptions. NRPORS's structural distinctiveness is its extreme concentration risk: a single-employer, single-occupation plan with a mandatory start date that creates a closed aging cohort over time. No new members will enter the system from a different vintage. That makes its long-term funded status a pure function of state appropriations discipline and WVIMB pool returns, with no demographic off-ramp or risk-pooling diversification across other agencies. It is, in effect, a legacy tail hedge for the state writ large — one that will demand full funding long after today's board members have cycled out of office.

## Sectors

- Public Equities
- Fixed Income
- Real Assets
- Private Equity
- Private Credit

## People

- Jim Justice — Governor, Chair of the WVIMB Board of Trustees
- Craig Slaughter — Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer, West Virginia Investment Management Board
- Jeffrey Fleck — Executive Director, West Virginia Consolidated Public Retirement Board

## Questions

### How is the plan funded, and what is the contribution structure?

Active members contribute 9.5% of their gross monthly salary on a pre-tax basis. The employer — the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources — contributes an additional 12% of the member's gross monthly salary. These are statutory rates set by the West Virginia Legislature at the plan's creation in 2021. The contributions flow into the WVIMB-managed pools, and benefit payouts follow a defined-benefit formula tied to years of service and final average salary.

### Why was a separate retirement system created for Natural Resources Police Officers?

The West Virginia Legislature established NRPORS to replace the prior practice of enrolling conservation officers in the state's general Public Employees Retirement System (PERS). The move followed a national pattern of carving out law enforcement and public safety workers into occupation-specific plans that often carry earlier retirement eligibility and different benefit multipliers. NRPORS covers only officers hired on or after January 2, 2021, creating a distinct legacy tier.

### What is the governance structure overseeing the plan?

The West Virginia Consolidated Public Retirement Board (CPRB), with Jeffrey Fleck as Executive Director, administers the plan's recordkeeping, member services, and compliance. Investment governance sits with the WVIMB Board of Trustees, whose members include the Governor, the State Treasurer, and the State Auditor. Day-to-day investment decisions are delegated to the WVIMB professional staff under CIO Craig Slaughter.

## Related profiles

- [West Virginia Municipal Police Officers & Firefighters Retirement System](https://altss.com/profile/west-virginia-municipal-police-officers-firefighters-retirement-system)
- [West Virginia Public Employees' Retirement System](https://altss.com/profile/west-virginia-public-employees-retirement-system)

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Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z

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