Wisconsin Coalition of Annuitants

October 20, 2025 Minutes

www.wicoa.org

Meeting called to order by the Chair Diane Wilcenski at 9:32a.m.

DIRECTORS & ALTERNATES PRESENT: Robert Beglinger, AFT-R; Barbara Bird, DOT; James Blank, Bay Lakes United Educators-R; Robert Brooks, Central Wisconsin Center Retirees; Sandy Drew, SWIB Retiree; Jean Grosklaus, West Allis Retirees; Paul Haubrich, UW Milwaukee Retiree’s Assoc.; Brian Holmes, Epsilon Sigma Phi; Bruce Johnson, SWIB Retiree; Rick Klemme, Epsilon Sigma Phi; Allen Knop, WEAC-Retired; Kathy Kreul, WFT/AFT Retirees; Jack Lawton, ACE; Tara Leithold, Kettle Moraine Retirees; Laurie Mayberry, Past President, UWRA; John Maydak, West Allis Retirees; Fred Nepple, OCI; Kevin Niemi, President Elect, UWRA; Dee Pettack, WSAA; Robert Schaefer, WI Assoc of Retired Conservationists and State Engineering Association; Sari Simer, SWIB; Roger Springman, WFT/AFT Retirees; Jeanne Stangl, Dodge County Area REA; Diane Wilcenski, WREA; Rick Wojciak, DNR; Christopher Wren, Wisconsin State Attorneys Association; and wicoa.org

DIRECTORS & ALTERNATES NOT PRESENT: Dave Bosanko, Retired Professional Fire Fighters of WI; Mary Czynszak-Lyne, Secretary UWRA; Ed Frank, WI Assoc of Retired Conservationists; Dick Kratz, WI Retired Corrections Personnel; Lucrecia Mattson, UW-Eau Claire Emeritus; Scott Hildebrand, UWRA President; Jim Palmer, WI Professional Police Association Retired; , Elaine Reiter, Kettle Moraine Retired; Tom Speranza, Retired Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin; Jim Thiel, Association of Career Employees; Clara Welch, Beloit Area REA

DIRECTORS & ALTERNATES EXCUSED;

GUESTS; Tarna Hunter, Chris Preisler, Sari Simer

Roll Call: Taken by Rick

Approval of the September Minutes: Minutes approved as printed.

GUEST: Tarna Hunter, Director of Budget and Management, ETF 

Open enrollment is currently going on right now through October 31st 2025. Any changes to your plans need to be made by then. The ETF Board met on October 2nd. It was an informational board meeting. ETF reported out on its 2025 Strategic Plan and its 2026 Strategic Plan focusing on improving customer experience, implementing our modern technologies, building a talented workforce, and performance and process management improvements. The 2025 plan was effective as ETF focused on modernization. Most of ETF initiatives are really focused on modernizing ETF.

The Insurance Administration System project went live on July 1st for UW members. There have been over 10,000 individual users. The system has performed well so far. Michelle Baxter who is the director of ETF’s Office of Enterprise Initiatives, made a few changes to the Insurance Administration System project, including changes to governance and restructuring the ETF IAS Team. This will continue for the next year. May1st, 2026 is when the Department of Administration is set to go live. The rest of the retirees and locals will go live on July 1st, 2026.

ETF has continued with their proof of concept for the Pension Administration System. ETF has two vendors that are doing proof of concepts. This started at the end of September. The two companies are Haywood and Telus. During the first week, both companies came onsite. Now, they are going every other week through the end of November. ETF is expecting that the evaluation team will have a recommendation to take to the Secretary’s office in December. Hopefully at the start of the new year we will know who the Pension Administration vendor will be.

A reminder that the annuity payments will be paid on Monday, November 3rd, 2025. There have been comments about getting paid before the first when the calendar falls that way. However, due to the federal contract that ETF has for direct deposits, it is not possible.

The Group Insurance Board meets on November 12, 2025

The ETF Board Meets on December 11, 2025

Guest: Chris Preisler, Senior Communications Specialist, SWIB

Performance final returns as of August 31, 2025 Returns on a Five-year Basis

Core 10.33% Benchmark 9.53% Core 8.04% Benchmark 7.16%

Variable 14.29% Benchmark 13.98% Variable 12.81% Benchmark 12.79%

Preliminary peek of returns as of Sept. 30, 2025 Returns on a Five-year Basis

Core 11.9% Benchmark 11.2% Core 8.75% Benchmark %

Variable 18.2% Benchmark 18.0% Variable 14.3% Benchmark %

WRS Assets Under Management

Core Fund 138.3B Variable Fund 12.1B for a total of 150.4B in retirement fund assets

Portfolio Performance

Both funds continue to do well. The markets continue to be doing well. SWIB is keeping an eye on things like the government shutdown, the job market, and inflation.

The Federal Reserve has a meeting scheduled for the 28th and 29th of this month (Oct). The Open Market Committee will again be discussing whether to implement another rate cut or hold steady.

SWIB did publish a new market update podcast. Chris encouraged us to listen to it. They are talking with Nick Staton who is the head of SWIB’s multi-asset strategies division. He provides some insight into some of the topics we talked about like how the markets are running hot, if we are in a bubble, what to expect. It is 10 minutes in length and can be found at https://www.swib.state.wi.us/podcasts SWIB is recording a full-length podcast on AI that will be released in the near future.

The Board of Trustees is scheduled to meet on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. (Oct. 21-22). They are doing their October Workshop off siteat the Lake Lawn Resort in Delevan. Some of the bigger topics that they will discuss is a WRS actuarial overview and look at projections. The other big thing they will be talking about and looking at is an asset allocation review. They will not make any decisions on this until their meeting in December. At that meeting, they will look at recommendations from SWIB’s consultant, NEPC. They will also look at and review some of the changes in the financial markets. The Board will look at some of the themes that they are seeing in their analysis of the assets.

It looks like the recommendation coming from NEPC for the Board to consider will be a decrease of 2% in public equities for next year. Chris thinks that their thinking is that the markets have been running hot for a really long time, so they are looking to back off some of the risk should there be a downturn at any point. They may also reduce leverage by about 2%.

The Board will vote on the recommendations at their December meeting which is scheduled for December 16th and 17th. Board materials can be found on the SWIB website. https://www.swib.state.wi.us/meetings The Board workshop is not live streamed. Chris will get notes on what happens at this meeting and will bring the information back to us at our meeting next month.

There has been a change in the communications department at SWIB. Shannon Gannon, who was communications director, has left the agency. Jay Risch who is SWIB’s government relations liaison, is going to take on the responsibilities of overseeing communications and government relations. Jay has been with SWIB for almost seven years now. SWIB is looking forward to working with Jay on communication efforts.

One last thing is a reminder that SWIB is looking at redesigning their website. Chris is open to hearing any feedback you may have. Please send your thoughts and comments to him at chris.preisler@swib.state.wi.us They are hoping to launch in April, 2026, which is a quick turnaround. SWIB also has some ADA compliance things that they need to be in line with, which is the reason that they are fast tracking this project.

Diane gave a shout out to both ETF and SWIB. WREA had their convention at the end of September and into early October. Every year we have John from ETF and Jameson from SWIB to speak at the last day of their convention. This is one of the highly attended parts of the convention. Diane recommended that if you have a big meeting coming up, you might want to have them speak to your group.

The WREA Convention will be held in Middleton next year!

Correspondence: None

Old Business:

WICOA 2026 Annual Conference

Bob Schaefer opened the discussion by asking the members if they want the conference to be entirely on Zoom or if they wish for the Hybrid model of Zoom and in person.

Bob has been in contact with someone from AMFAM and was told that they would be up and running at the beginning of the new year. They have an internal company that provides the meals. This would be like the meetings that were held before Covid. It would be a full day event. They have adequate parking there, also.

Rick questioned if they are capable of streaming. Bob replied that they were capable of both live and streaming.

Paul Haubrich stated that he would prefer the hybrid. Bob stated that it would be nicer and has some advantages like reaching a bigger crowd.

Bob recommended a vote to decide Zoom or Hybrid. He asked for other opinions.

Roger Springmans thought that the hybrid would make good sense. Jack Lawton agreed.

Bob will continue his contact with AMFAM to move forward.

The next question was what date should we hold the conference on? We were reminded that it will be a one-day meeting.

Roger Springman asked if we could spread the conference over two days as we’re having this on tape. Bob responded that we would do the entire meeting in one day. If people didn’t want to sit in from of their computer for the whole day, they could come back and look at it at a later time. The only thing would be is that they couldn’t ask questions.

Bob stated that the hybrid would provide an advantage of seeing people again.

Brian Holmes asked Bob if he had checked out the Middleton Convention Center yet. Bob ended up at the Marriott Convention Center. Diane thought it was the Greenway Center and didn’t feel that it was what we were looking for.

Sandy Drew suggested Oakwood as another potential spot. They do have a small auditorium there. Bob has not checked that one out yet. Kevin Niemi stated that his group does a lot of programing out there and they do have the full capabilities that they support. Bob questioned if there are adequate parking capabilities at Oakwood. Kevin said that there is a new wing to the south side that has a very large parking lot, but does involve some walking.

Bob mentioned that AMFAM being right off the interstate would be much easier to get to. Sandy Drew also mentioned the Middleton Performing Arts Center as another possibility. Jeanne Stangl mentioned that since we are familiar with AMFAM, that we go with them.

Rick asked how many people we had at AMFAM right before Covid. Bob and Sandy both agreed that we had over 100 people. It was decided that who we have for speakers would be the draw to come down to the Madison area.

Now we need to choose a date. Chris and Tarna will check their calendars for ETF and SWIB.

It was decided that we should look at the week of May 11^th to the 15^th. We are looking at Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. Bob will contact AMFAM and see about availability. He also noted that it was free to use the AMFAM facility.

John Maydak questioned how we would handle the meal situation when we ate there. John said that it is a lot of work to have the conference at AMFAM. Nametags need to be provided, snacks need to be provided in the morning, Money needs to be collected for the conference as well as the luncheon. People who watched Zoom would not have to pay a fee. People who do have to pay can write a check or pay through PayPal. We also need to be aware to additional fees to use credit cards or if there is a minimum number of people that need to eat there.

There is a catering company out of McFarland named Angel’s who does a wonderful job for about $20 per meal. However, we don’t know if AMFAM would allow an outside vendor to come in. Rick stated that in the past, if you came to the conference, you paid for the meal. John Maydak stated that the $15 that you paid was for the meal and the coffee and donuts in the morning. John said it would be difficult to separate the people who wanted to eat at AMFAM and those who just wanted to be at the meeting.

Bob said that he would make a trip out to AMFAM in person to find out about details. He stressed the importance of getting a date on the calendar ASAP to accommodate John and Edwin.

Next up was the discussion of speakers. Doug Poland’s name was brought up. He was an attorney that took the case for gerrymandering to the Supreme Court. He is still involved in that. ARRP is always popular. WE have had economists in the past. Maybe we could get one that has a crystal ball.

Jean Grosklaus asked Rick how he was set up to contact people for the conference. Jean and John sent out hundreds of email invitations. Jean noted that it was already getting harder to get people to come as attendance was also going down. She also raised the question if people were going to realize that they can split the program into two days on their computers. Jean also mentioned that the conference at AmFam was a lot of work! She and John were actually relieved when there when there were no longer any meetings. She then asked about how he was going to contact people on all the lists since they haven’t been updated for a long time. Rick responded that he did have her list, John’s list and Dick’s list and has added more along the way.

Rick stated that he could send out email blasts to those hundreds of people with a save the date to get some type of feeling for the interest of members.

Other ideas were to have a backup facility in case we couldn’t reach the minimum for lunches.

Sandy Drew then questioned why we must have the entire conference in one day. She suggested that we split it into two half days, perhaps a few weeks in between. Bob mentioned that most people would not want to travel back. Sandy clarified her suggestion that she would like to have the two leaders from SWIB and ETF speak to us in person and then on the second half day have the other speakers do their presentations online. Another suggestion that was made was to still have two half days where John speaks on one day and Edwin on the second day with it not being in person.

Bob suggested having John speak in the morning with a person speaking about ETF related items and then Edwin speaking in the afternoon with another speaker talking about another topic.

Kathy Kreul suggested that we find out all the information from AMFAM before we go any further. It would help to know minimums on attendance, minimums on lunches and the costs.

Diane Wilcenski then asked Tarna when the next newsletter is due to come out. Tarna said that she thought that it was in January. Chris Preisler also confirmed that it was January. Tarna will get Diane the date when copy is due.

Diane also suggested that as soon as Bob gets all the information, he should let Diane know and she will ask Rick to set up a Zoom call with the executive committee to make the final decision.

Bob suggested that we let not only retirees know about the conference but current employees as well.

Tarna stated that ETF actually sent out a press release concerning the conference that included active members.

Bob suggested that we should think about other topics we would like to learn about and who should receive the Blair Testin Award. Allen Knoop stated that he would talk to people from the Monona Senior Center. They get speakers from the University in Whitewater.

Rick told Bob that last year when we had two half days 81% of the people who registered showed up and on the second day 71% of those who registered show up. These are very good numbers. Rick suggested that he could send a survey out to the 187 people who registered last year for ideas for speakers they would like to hear from.

Bob is looking at Wednesday May 13^th and Thursday May 14^th as possible dates. Sandy asked Rick if anyone looked at the Zoom presentation that was posted online. Rick said around 50 people watched it online at a later time.

New Business:

An attachment was sent to you along with the minutes. It was concerning SSM Settlement And Privacy Disclosure. Roger Springman spoke on this topic. He stated that at the AFTW retiree meeting last month they got into a very interesting topic. In late September many AFTW members received a cryptic email saying that they were an eligible member of a group of people who were judged injured in a settled lawsuit coming out of St. Louis Missouri. Each individual was to gain $31. This was the settlement in the lawsuit, Jane Doe v. SSM Health Care Corporation d/b/a SSM Health. The lawsuit alleged that SSM Health added tracking technologies to its MyChart patient portal. This led to an additional conversation about protecting our privacy information. We thought that it might be a good idea to seek additional information from the Group Health Insurance Board and ETF on what they are doing to protect our personal health information. We thought that maybe having someone from either ETF or GIB or some insurance entity could come and talk to us about what they do to protect our personal health information.

Tarna said that she could have the ETF Chief Information Security Officer come and talk with us. She also mentioned that they just implemented an Office of Risk Enterprise which manages enterprise risk. ETF has a very robust cybersecurity risk program. Tarna will arrange for the person to come and provide information on what ETF does to protect your date.

A question was raised by Kathy Kruel about what protections do we have with third party vendors being involved in our personal information.

Sandy Drew questioned what SWIB was doing with all the AI. Chris Preisler responded that SWIB has just started implementing AI into the workflow. When using AI at SWIB it stays in house. SWIB has policies in place. Chris will know more after he talks with their chief technology officer next week. He does know the there are policies for staff, restrictions on what type of tools can be used.

Tarna mentioned that they have a policy that nobody is allowed to put any personal information on any members or anything like that in AI. She also mentioned that all of ETF health contracts have very robust requirements in the contracts right now relating to privacy and security

Sandy Drew asked Chris if staff could use their home computer to do their work on. Chris said that everyone has their own portable laptop computer now and carry it back and forth with them.

ETF does not have any direct investments in bitcoin.

Ideas for speakers

Crypto scams against older citizens

Issues that face seniors

The future of Social Security

Care for seniors that have special needs who to contact, who can help, services available.

Cybersecurity

AI

Bitcoin Fraud

Check with AARP for speakers.

The Office of the Commissioner for Insurance to speak on the rights enrollees have when providers leave the network.

Treasurer Report:

There is no change in the Treasurer’s Report.

No income, No Expenses.

So, our total assets remain at $6,847.74.

Kathy will be sending out letters to pay the dues of $50. For 2026 soon. She has been struggling with how to do this because she still doesn’t feel that there is good information for all of the organizations.

Diane mentioned to Kathy that she can inactivate Beloit. Their chapter is on the brink of dissolving.

Next Meeting:

November 17, 2025 at 9:30 AM via Zoom

Meeting adjourned at 10:49AM

Respectfully submitted,

Jeanne Stangl

WICOA Secretary.