The general purpose of the Ohio Retirement Study Council is to provide legislative oversight as well as advise and inform the state legislature on all matters relating to the benefits, funding, investment, and administration of the five state retirement systems in Ohio. Ohio's five public state retirement systems are the State Teachers Retirement System (STRS), created in 1920 for teachers in public schools, colleges, and universities; the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS), created in 1935 for state employees and expanded in 1938 to cover local government employees; the School Employees Retirement System (SERS), created in 1937 for non-teaching school employees; the State Highway Patrol Retirement System (SHPRS), created in 1944 by the withdrawal of all state troopers from PERS; and the Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund (OP&F), created in 1967 after the consolidation of 454 local police and fire relief and pension funds.

As of January 1, 2024, the five state retirement systems have combined assets of approximately $242 billion with approximately 670,000 active contributing members, 1,170,000 inactive members, and 490,000 beneficiaries and recipients. The State of Ohio has a long tradition of providing benefits to public employees. These benefits are managed by the five systems and funded through employer and employee contributions and investment earnings on those contributions.