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 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
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