WCOA ANNUAL CONFERENCE

May 16, 2011

Matt Stohr, Administrator for Retirement Services

Department of Employee Trust Funds

Today’s Presentation

Overview of the WRS More Detail regarding the Provisions in

2011 WI Act 10 Affect on ETF’s workload

Other Retirement Related Issues at ETF

Overview of WRS

Over 566,000 members in the WRS (1/1/10) Active employees: 267,293 Annuitants (retirees, disabilitants, and

beneficiaries): 150,671 Inactive employees: 148,353

Active employees by employer type: 27% state, 73% local

1,469 employers

WRS Members by Employer Type

WRS Members Eligible to Retire

Active 64,993 Inactive 41,075 Total 106,068

As of 1/1/10, roughly 24% of active WRS members were eligible to retire.

2011 WI Act 10

Provisions that affect the programs administered by ETF

Major insurance-related provisions that affect active employees: Local employers can no longer contribute more than 88% of the

premium for local government plan participants beginning 1/1/2012. Establishes new premium rates for state employees for the rest of

2011. These rates for the employee share are more than twice current rates.

Directs Group Insurance Board to design health coverage plans that reduce state premium costs by at least 5% (including inflationary

increases) in 2012 compared to 2011 premium costs.

 

Act 10

Major WRS-related provisions that affect active employees: Changes to WRS contribution rates

Most WRS employees will be required to pay increased WRS contributions (percentage of earnings), usually one-half of total contributions.

Actual amount varies for each WRS employee category.

Eliminates the Benefit Adjustment Contribution. Contribution rates can change each calendar

year Primarily depends on investment performance.

Act 10

Prohibits employers in the WRS and other governmental pension plans (City and County of Milwaukee) from “picking up” the employee share for most employees. Exception: Existing collective bargaining agreements. Exception: Many protective occupation employees.

Changes the formula calculation multiplier for elected and executive employees from 2.0% to 1.6%.

Date of applicability varies.

Act 10

Effective date of Act? Generally, an Act becomes effective on the day

after it is published by the Secretary of State. On March 18, 2011 a temporary restraining order (TRO) was issued by the Dane County Circuit Court prohibiting the Secretary of State from publishing the Act as law pending further legal proceedings.

Current Workload

ETF has received more than 15,000 retirement estimate requests in the first 17 weeks of 2011, which is a 108% increase compared to the first 17 weeks in 2010.

ETF has received about 7900 retirement applications in the first 17 weeks of 2011, which is roughly a 94% increase compared to the same time in 2010.

Affect on Other Services

Have had to prioritize services due to limited resources Wait times have increased for:

General correspondence Separation benefits Death benefit processing Final annuity calculations

Customer Service Improvements Despite these challenges, we have

launched many customer service improvements. Variable Fund information for retirees Developed one-stop shop retirement planning

tools Videos Brochures

Expanded outreach across the state Improved our overall customer service score

with benchmarking firm

Thank You

Appreciate partnership with WCOA. Questions?