2025 Documents
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Wisconsin Coalition of Annuitants
February 17, 2025 Minutes
Meeting called to order by the Chair Diane Wilcenski at 9:32a.m.
DIRECTORS & ALTERNATES PRESENT: Barbara Bird, DOT; James Blank, Bay Lakes United Educators-R; Robert Brooks, Central Wisconsin Center Retirees; Jean Grosklaus, West Allis Retirees; 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; ; Mary Czynszak-Lyne ; Laurie Mayberry, UWRA President; John Maydak, West Allis Retirees; Fred Nepple, OCI; Jim Palmer, WI Professional Police Association Retired; Elaine Reiter, Kettle Moraine Retired; Sari Simer, Roger Springman, WFT/AFT Retirees; Jeanne Stangl, Dodge County Area REA; Jim Thiel, Association of Career Employees; Diane Wilcenski, WREA; Rick Wojciak, DNR; Christopher Wren, Wisconsin State Attorneys Association; and wicoa.org
DIRECTORS & ALTERNATES NOT PRESENT: Robert Beglinger, AFT-R; Dave Bosanko, Retired Professional Fire Fighters of WI; Sandy Drew, SWIB Retiree; Ed Frank, WI Assoc of Retired Conservationists; Paul Haubrich, UW Milwaukee Retiree’s Assoc.; Dick Kratz, WI Retired Corrections Personnel; Tara Leithold, Kettle Moraine Retirees Lucrecia Mattson, UW-Eau Claire Emeritus; Dee Pettack, SAA ; Tom Speranza; Joe Strohl, Retired Professional Fire Fighters of WI; Clara Welch, Beloit Area REA
DIRECTORS & ALTERNATES EXCUSED: Robert Schaefer, WI Assoc of Retired Conservationists and State Engineering Association;
Roll Call: Taken by Rick
Approval of the January Minutes: Minutes approved as printed.
GUEST: Tarna Hunter, Director of Budget and Management, ETF
Tarna began her presentation with a Human Resources update. ETF is currently recruiting for 18 different positions and have an additional 6 vacant positions waiting in line to be recruited once the 18 positions are filled. ETF has filled some key leadership positions including Director of Employer Services, Deputy Director of Employer Services, and Deputy Director of Benefit Services.
Roger Fletcher, Director of Member Services recently announced that he will retire in March after 25 years with ETF. ETF will also be recruiting to fill his position.
Diana Felsmann was appointed Deputy Secretary of ETF. She had been the Chief Legal Counsel for ETF. Peter Rank who had been ETF Attorney was promoted to Chief Legal Counsel. ETF is now recruiting to fill Peter’s former position.
The Group Insurance Board met on January 15. They approved and awarded two contracts. One was for the ETF pharmacy benefit manager. The contract was awarded to Navitus which is ETF’s current pharmacy benefit manager and has been for many years. The second contract approved was with United Health Care for the Medicare Advantage and Medicare Plus plans. We previously had United Health Care so that will continue with no change.
The Reserve Fund was also reviewed by the board. The Reserve Fund was found to be a little lower than what was expected primarily due to some reserve withdrawals over the past years in trying to keep health care costs as stable as possible. The board will review these numbers in February and March.
GIB held their elections for board members at their last meeting. Hershel Day was named as Chair, Nathan Houdek was named Vice-Chair and Nancy Thompson was named Secretary. All three currently hold these same positions.
ETF Statement of Benefits will be released in April and will be put online! Additionally, the effective rate projections for active employees are 7.3% to 7.7% for the Core Fund and 17.0% to 21.0% for the Variable Fund. Final calculations will be made next month.
Annuity adjustment projections are projected to increase 2.0% to 2.4% for the Core Fund and 12.0% to 16% for the Variable Fund. Numbers will be finalized in March.
My Insurance Benefits (insurance administration system modernization project) is moving forward. Right now, end-to-end testing, employer testing, and data conversion activities are being done. ETF will begin employer training, employee training along with readiness activities with employers and ETF staff in March. ETF’s goal is to have the system operationalized by July 2025.
Governor Evers is giving his budget address tomorrow night (February 18). ETF has not had an update on what from their budget request will be included. ETF is hoping that it includes funding for the pension administration system and positions to support ETF going forward.
Jay Risch and Tarna have been meeting with new legislators to discuss WRS101. Things seem to be going well. Tarna has been having conversations with different legislators because Return-to Work continues to be an important topic. One bill has been introduced. This bill pertains only to law enforcement officers and firefighters. The bill allows them to return to work and doesn’t change the 75-day break in service. ETF expects that other bills are going to pop up targeting different groups of employees. ETF’s position is that the bill should include everybody and should be as simple as possible to administer. It also supports the 75-day break in service to be in compliance with IRS laws.
A Co-sponsorship memo was introduced by Senator Jacque and Representative Melotik that would basically make the 911 dispatchers covered under the Act 4. They would have the ability to opt-in to being a protective but would have to pay for the protective status like jailers. The bill goes further to include that if the dispatcher did not want to pay the cost of being a protective, they can enroll in the duty disability program and pay the duty disability cost. Dispatchers would also be able to retire at age 50. ETF is currently reviewing this law as it will be extremely complicated to administer. ETF is looking into administration issues and well as federal compliance issues.
ETF Meetings
Group Insurance Board – February 26, 2025 and March 12,2025
Deferred Compensation Board meeting – March 13, 2025
Retirement Board- March 27,2025
Guest: Chris Preisler, Senior Communications Specialist, SWIB
Performance final year end Returns on a Five-year Basis
Core 8.55% Benchmark 7.44% Core 7.24% Benchmark 6.53%
Variable 18.70% Benchmark 18.27% Variable 10.94% Benchmark 11.08%
Assets Under Management
Core Fund 128.4B Variable Fund 11.1B for a total of 139.5B in WRS assets
Over the last twenty years, SWIB has generated over $15B for the core fund through active management and the diversification of the portfolio above what would have been earned in a low cost or passive portfolio. SWIB’s investment management has added value to the Trust Funds of more than $4B above benchmark returns over the five-year period.
Portfolio Performance
Public Equities finished the year at 17.4%.
Fixed Income finished the year at 3.8%
Treasury and Inflation Protected securities finished at 1.8%
Private Equity Debt finished at 7.5%.
Real Estate benchmark was down 8.0% but SWIB actual real estate holding fell only 3.25% The SWIB Real Estate Team positioned SWIB very well.
January Preliminary Numbers
Core Fund 1.8% Benchmark 1.7%
Variable Fund 3.4% Benchmark 3.4%
SWIB is just keeping an eye on everything that is happening with the change in administration and with the things that the administration is rolling out. There has been an uptick in inflation and talks about tariffs that SWIB is watching. Also, the expectations for more rate cuts from the Federal Reserve have also cooled.
Chris highly recommends listening to the latest podcast that features Edwin Denson. Edwin shares his thoughts on the 2024 numbers related to returns and performance. Edwin also shares his insight of what 2025 numbers may look like.
There is talk in the Legislature of bringing all state employees back in the office five days a week. Currently at SWIB, most employees are in the office three days a week, and no employees are fully remote. This plan that was developed by SWIB is based on how far you live from the office. This plan works for SWIB. Everyone is getting their jobs done.
SWIB’s talent pool would be greatly impacted if the mandate would convert back to five days a week in the office.
Tarna noted that the bill has been introduced by Speaker Robin Voss in December. It is Bill SB27. Governor Evers has noted that he would veto this bill.
SWIB Board Meeting- March 18 and March 19. Go to their website for materials. The meetings are streamed.
Correspondence: None
New Business:
2025 Wisconsin Coalition of Annuitants Annual Meeting
May 13, 2025, 9:30AM – Noon
9:30 - Welcome – Diane Wilcenski - WCOA Chair
9:35 - John Voelker, Secretary of Employee Trust Funds
Question & Answer Session with Secretary Voelker
10:40 – Political Landscape /What AARP is focusing on this year?
Adam Goldberg, Senior AARP Legislative Representative
Advocacy and an Update on the AARP Campaign
Lisa Lamkins, AARP Campaigns Strategic Advisor
Question & Answer Session with Adam
Goldberg and Lisa Lamkins
11:45 – Closing Remarks – Diane Wilcenski, WCOA Chair
May 14, 2025 9:30AM – Noon
9:30 – Welcome – Diane Wilcenski - WCOA Chair
9:35 – Edwin Denson, SWIB Executive Director/ Chief Investment Officer
Question & Answer Session with SWIB Executive Director, Edwin Denson
10:45 – Update on Social Security and Potential Changes
Tom Nicholls, AARP Government Affairs Director, Social Security
Questions & Answer Session with Tom Nicholls
11:45 – Blair Testin Award
12:00 – Closing Remarks – Diane Wilcenski – WCOA Chair
Please encourage your members to register for this event.
Blair Testin Award
I have attached a document explaining the history of the Blair Testin Award. We will make a decision on this year’s recipient at the March WICOA Meeting. Please be ready with suggestions.
Medicare Letter
Jack Lawton reported that the suggestions from the last meeting were incorporated into the letter. The letter is now complete. The content of the letter has remained quite stable over the past few months. We are now ready for the next step which is to decide who we should send this letter to.
The current list is as follows:
All Wisconsin Congressional Delegates
White House Executive Staff
Secretary of the US Department of Health & Human Services
Chair and Ranking Member of the House Committee assigned to Medicare
Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee assigned to Medicare
Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Executive Director for the Physicians for National Health Program
Executive Director of AARP
Executive Director for the Kaiser Family Foundation
Media Contacts
A suggestion was made by Brian Holmes that we add all Wisconsin Legislators and all WCOA member organizations.
A suggestion was made by Allen Knop that we should leave it up to the organizations to contact the people that they want to send the letter or comments to.
Roger Springman referred to a discussion that was had a few months ago concerning the notion of sending the letter to Senator Baldwin and Representative Pocan first to get their feedback. They may be able to give us additional information on who we should send our letter to.
Jim Thiel suggested that we included the heads of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and Minnesota to receive a copy of the letter.
Kathy Kreul suggested that letters be sent to members of WCOA and then have a press conference to have their support. We want to have them know what is happening and not be blindsided by this letter. We know many of the members have Medicare Advantage and we don’t want to have them think that we are attacking them. We want them to know the reasons behind this and why we are sending this letter.
Chris Wren stated that if we distribute the letter to the member organizations before the press conference, it will fragment the press conference.
Diane Suggested that these be the next steps…..
Send the letter as it is right now to the WOCA directors
Subcommittee meets one more time to clean up a few things
Get the letter to Baldwin and Pocan and give them a time frame to respond
Once we hear back from Baldwin and Pocan, send the letter to all the recipients listed above.
A motion was made by Jack Lawton and seconded by James Blank that the letter will be sent as it stands right now. The subcommittee will clean up the final letter along with the list of cc’s and then that will be sent to the WCOA Membership in addition to Tammy Baldwin and Mark Pocan. Motion approved.
Jim questioned if a physical letter or email letter will be used for communication. Rick shared that if a physical letter is received it has to be logged in, while an email may not have to be. Diane will discuss this with the subcommittee.
Please send Diane an email if you have problems with your organization’s name on the list of WCOA Members as supporters of the letter. Feel free to send any questions from our membership that you can’t answer to Diane, and she will get them to the subcommittee.
Treasurers Report:
Kathy Kreul has volunteered to be WCOA Treasurer!!!!! She was appointed at the meeting. Kathy will meet with Diane at Summit Bank to get past statements and start going forward. Thank you, Kathy!!!
No report at this time.
Additional Business
Our list of directors with names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, alternates, and billing information is woefully out of date. A form will be sent out for you to complete and send back to Diane.
Adjournment:
Our Meeting was adjourned by Diane Wilcenski at 10:39AM
Next Meeting:
Monday, March 17, 2025 at 9:30AM via Zoom
Respectfully submitted by Jeanne Stangl, WCOA Secretary