Illinois Appellate Court Clarifies Limits of Pension Portability

by Michael Castaldo III

The Illinois Appellate Court recently addressed the extent to which pension benefits follow public employees who move between state retirement systems. In Kievlan v. Judges Retirement System of Illinois, 2026 IL App (1st) 250150, the court upheld the classification of two judges as Tier 2 members of the Judges Retirement System (“JRS”), rejecting their attempt to carry Tier 1 status into the judicial system based on prior public service.

Public Act 96-889 created a two-tier structure for state-operated pension funds and downstate police and firefighters’ pension funds. Tier 1 covers individuals who began participation in a particular system before January 1, 2011, while Tier 2 applies to those who entered a system on or after January 1, 2011, and provides reduced benefits and later retirement eligibility.

The plaintiffs, Patricia Kievlan and Natosha Toller, both worked for many years in Illinois public service and participated in other state pension systems before 2011. Each later became a judge after the effective date of the pension reform. When they joined the bench, JRS classified them as Tier 2 members because they did not begin judicial service until after January 1, 2011. The plaintiffs challenged that determination, arguing that their earlier participation in other pension systems entitled them to Tier 1 status within JRS.

Central to the dispute was the scope of Illinois’ Reciprocal Act, which allows public employees to combine service credit earned in different pension systems—excluding downstate firefighters’ and police pension funds—for retirement eligibility. The plaintiffs contended that reciprocity should extend beyond service credit to include benefit levels, and that because they entered public service before 2011, they had a vested right to Tier 1 benefits regardless of when they joined JRS. They further argued that denying Tier 1 status violated the Illinois Constitution’s pension protection clause by diminishing earned benefits.

The appellate court rejected those arguments. It emphasized the distinction between service credit and benefit structure. While the Reciprocal Act permits aggregation of service years, it does not require one system to adopt the benefit calculations of another. Each pension system operates under its own statutory framework, with benefits determined by the law in effect when an employee joins that system. Because the plaintiffs did not become judges—and therefore did not enter JRS—until after January 1, 2011, the court concluded that Tier 2 classification was required by statute.

The court also rejected the plaintiffs’ constitutional claims. With respect to the pension protection clause, the court held that the plaintiffs had no protected interest in JRS benefits before joining that system. Applying Tier 2 provisions to their judicial service did not reduce or impair any benefit they had already earned. The court likewise dismissed equal protection and special legislation arguments, finding that differences among pension systems justified distinct eligibility rules and that the legislature had a rational basis for imposing stricter limits on judges’ pensions.

Finally, the court declined to consider alleged procedural defects in the statute’s passage, relying on binding Illinois Supreme Court precedent foreclosing such challenges.

Although it arose in the context of the Judges Retirement System and is unlikely to directly affect the administration of downstate police and firefighter pension funds, Kievlan is still instructive. Once again, the appellate court declined to invalidate Tier 2, reaffirming that distinctions based on a member’s entry date—no matter whether reciprocity is involved—do not run afoul of the Pension Protection Clause or equal protection guarantees. The decision also reinforces the principle that reciprocity permits the transfer of service credit and the calculation of proportional benefits, but does not carry over the more generous provisions of an earlier Tier. In this respect, Kievlan offers additional confirmation that Tier 2 remains constitutionally sound and that date-based Tier classifications across Illinois pension systems will be applied as written.