The Denver Employees Retirement Plan (DERP) was established in 1963 to provide a defined benefit pension and post employment health benefits to employees of the city and county of Denver, Colorado. The strategy for maintaining DERP’s pension funding levels involves carefully managing its assets and liabilities, and consistently paying the full annual required contribution (ARC). Because DERP’s plan sponsors have consistently fully funded the ARC for more than 40 years, its funded status has long been at the upper end compared with others in its peer group of public pension funds.