Fall/Winter 2018 6101 Yellowstone Rd, Suite 500 • Cheyenne, WY 82002 • 307-777-7691 • http://retirement.wyo.gov WRS Investment Team Members What’s the Receive Accolades Power of Three? Chief Investment Officer, Sam to keep the momentum going!” Most WRS members have access Masoudi and Senior Investment Offi- Want to know more about the to three retirement vehicles – Social cer, John Kreiter each received invest- entire WRS investment team? Read Security, your WRS Pension and 457 ment industry accolades recently. Sam their bios at retirement.wyo.gov under Plan, which allows you to supplement was twenty-fifth in the2018 Power 100 the About tab. your pension with personal invest- which is an annual list honoring top ments. That’s what we mean by the asset owners in the world. John was Power of Three. As you develop your among those listed by Trusted Insight’s personal retirement savings strategy, Top 30 List for public pension funds. use these vehicles to your best advan- When asked to comment Sam tage. WRS is here to assist, and offers said “Because of the Governor’s and an array of educational materials and JAC’s backing, the Board’s and our individual counseling. executive director’s stewardship, WRS staff’s support, and the investment team’s hard work, it has definitely been a broad team effort. We have accom- Sam Masoudi John Kreiter plished a lot, and we are working hard National Retirement Security Week During the week of October 14-20, The following 32 state legislators Representative Sue Wilson, HD 7 hundreds of WRS members engaged signed on as supporters. Representative Bob Nicholas, HD 8 in taking proactive steps toward Senator Ogden Driskill, SD 1 Representative Landon Brown, HD 9 good retirement outcomes during Senator Curt Meier, SD 3 Representative Cathy Connolly, HD 13 National Retirement Security Week Senator Fred Emerich, SD 5 Representative Dan Furphy, HD 14 2018. The educational materials pro- Representative Don Burkhart, Jr., HD 15 moted during the week are still avail- Senator Chris Rothfuss, SD 9 able at retirement.wyo.gov and all are Senator Glenn Moniz, SD 10 Representative Andy Schwartz, HD 23 encouraged to use them! WRS won a Senator Liisa Anselmi Dalton, SD 12 Representative Dan Laursen, HD 25 leadership award for the effectiveness Senator John Hastert, SD 13 Representative Jamie M. Flitner, HD 26 and impact of its NRSW campaign Senator Fred Baldwin, SD 14 Representative Mark Kinner, HD 29 efforts. Senator Bruce Burns, SD 21 Representative Joe MacGuire, HD 35 WRS thanks all the elected lead- Senator Bill Landen, SD 27 Representative Debbie Bovee, HD 36 ers who lent their support to NRSW. Senator Tara Nethercott, SD 4 Representative Steve Harshman, HD 37 Senator Mike Enzi co-sponsored the Senator Affie Ellis, SD 8 Representative Mike Madden, HD 40 U.S. Senate Resolution and Governor Representative Bill Henderson, HD 41 Matt Mead proclaimed it Retirement Senator Eli Bebout, SD 26 Representative Dan Zwonitzer, HD 43 Security Week in Wyoming. Senator Jim Anderson, SD 28 Representative Dan Kirkbride, HD 4 Representative John Freeman, HD 60 Team Spotlight: Pension Operations Staff Nadine Perkins, Beth Baker, Beth Cecil, Cathy Corso, Kelli Adkison, Renee Winfrey, Rose Todd, Kathrine Patton, Marcy Stoinski, Dove Lansden, Missie Avila, Lina Kramer, Cynthia Fernandez, and Lindsie Conrad is not pictured. Have you ever wondered about Employer Relations – Together ment planning has gotten better as a the people behind the scenes at WRS they assist employers with the process result of working here.” who make sure retirees are getting of submitting pension contributions “WRS has extremely long rela- their checks and active employees are each pay period. “We work together to tionships with its members, some- getting credited for another month of accurately post about $1 million every times from first employment to end service? How do they do what they do? day to individual member accounts of life,” commented Missie Avila who There are 44 employees in total and assist employers where needed,” handles death claims as well as pen- at WRS and 14 of them are Pension said supervisor Renee Winfrey. sion benefit counseling. The Pension Operations staff. On average Opera- Distributions – Under the super- Operations staff takes care of you all tions staff have 12 years at WRS. There vision of Cynthia Fernandez, her team along the way! are a few relatively new employees as takes care of executing the payroll for well more experienced. Dove Lansden retirees each month along with pro- Rose Todd, has been at WRS for thirty years and is viding customer service to our retir- Operations Manager still going strong. “When I first came ees whenever needed. “At $50 million Renee Winfrey, to work at WRS we were human com- per month, it could be considered the Employer Relations Supervisor puters. All the pension benefits were largest payroll in the entire state,” said Kelli Adkison, Senior Accountant calculated by hand and verified by a payroll specialist Beth Cecil. Cathy Corso, Senior Accountant supervisor. Establishing a member’s Member Benefits –Under the Lina Kramer, Senior Accountant highest average salary, which is used supervision of Marcy Stoinski, there [email protected] for the calculation, was very time are seven people in this section. Their consuming. Records for salary and mission is to ensure every member’s Cynthia Fernandez, months of service were kept on paper account reflects accurate data to sup- Distribution Supervisor and microfiche,” said Dove. port the calculation of fair and equi- Beth Cecil, Payroll Specialist WRS has modernized and har- table pension benefits for all. These are [email protected] nessed the power of technology. The the people you talk to when you want Operations staff are organized into to know where you stand with your Marcy Stoinski, three sections all under the manage- future pension benefit. Member Benefits Supervisor ment of Rose Todd, Operations Man- One of the newest staff members, Nadine Perkins, Lead Benefit Specialist ager. “Most of my staff were drawn to Lindsie Conrad, commented “This is Missie Avila, Benefit Specialist working at WRS because they enjoy such a small staff, and we have a big Beth Baker, Benefit Specialist people and providing customer ser- job. We all have to back each other up Lindsie Conrad, Benefit Specialist vice. They value public service and and also be very consistent in how we Dove Lansden, Benefit Specialist want to make sure our members get communicate to our members. It has Kathrine Patton, Benefit Specialist the very best,” said Rose. been fascinating to learn about this [email protected] function and my own personal retire- Updates to Assumptions May Impact Your Benefit Estimate The WRS Board made changes the assumed rate of return, adjust to the assumptions used for pension mortality assumptions to reflect longer plan administration earlier in the year lifespans, and adjust wage and payroll WRS Board during its evaluation of the funding growth assumptions to be more in- status of each pension. These adjust- line with actual experience. Representing the ments have been implemented and If you are close to retiring, you’ve Community at Large may have an impact on benefit calcula- probably gotten an estimate of your Michael Ceballos tions. As such, we recommend actively future pension benefit from WRS. Max “Tom” Chapman III employed members log into the WRS Make sure you know the impact these Keith Hay pension portal and get updated pen- updates will have, and incorporate Laura Ladd, Chair sion estimate information. that into your retirement planning. Eric Nelson, Vice Chair The health of a pension plan You can contact a benefit specialist at Representing Public depends primarily on having reason- (307) 777-1977 or [email protected] Employees able assumptions and adequate contri- for assistance. Brian Foster butions. Changes were made to reduce Tim Sullivan Representing School District Employees SERG — State Employee Retiree Group Kay Watson SERG invites you to join them gible to join. For more information, Representing Higher the second Monday of each month at contact Donella Marrs (307) 635-5858 Education Employees the Red Lion Hotel in Cheyenne for a or Marianne Bixler (307) 631-3622. Garth Shanklin no-host lunch and to visit with your There may be other retiree groups. Representing Retirees retired co-workers. If you worked for If you know of one, submit the details Vicci Colgan the State anytime during your career to WRS and we will include the infor- Wyoming State Treasurer and are now retired, you are eli- mation in the next newsletter. The Honorable Mark Gordon Once Again, WRS Recommended Reduces Administrative Reading Costs for 457 Plan We suggest you read, When it came to The Board voted to reduce the retirement planning, I needed a nudge, by level of administrative charges for Vicci Colgan who represents retirees on the participants of the Deferred Com- WRS Board. It was published in the pensation 457 Plan effective January Wyoming Education 1, 2019. The current annual fee of Association Back to School 0.27% of total assets will be reduced Issue 1 (page 17). She gives to 0.26%, which is equivalent to 26 a personal and relatable cents on every $100 of your account account of the things balance. The asset cap for adminis- she wished she had done trative charges was also reduced to differently for her retirement $150,000 from $182,000. The Board planning, and highlights evaluates the amount charged for ways employers administration each year and seeks to can help. reduce it whenever possible. PRESORT STD Wyoming Retirement System US POSTAGE 6101 Yellowstone Rd, Suite 500 PAID Cheyenne, WY 82002 PERMIT #7 CHEYENNE, WY 82009 New Issuer for Pension Payments Starting in January, retiree pen- intends to provide state income tax bank statement.