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United Methodist Personal Investment Plan
July 2015
Vol. III, Issue 2

Annual Retirement Readiness Statements—Beginning in August

The General Board wants participants to be adequately prepared to enjoy the retirement they envision. Recognizing that some participants are not well informed about their financial progress toward retirement, the General Board will send each participant an annual Retirement Readiness Statement beginning in August.1

The Retirement Readiness Statement is designed to show the participant’s projected monthly income from General Board-administered retirement plans and programs, along with estimated monthly Social Security benefits. This is a year-long program—the General Board will begin mailing Retirement Readiness Statements in batches in August, and all participants will receive their first statement by August 2016.

The Retirement Readiness Statement attempts to answer three questions:

  1. How much retirement income a participant is expected to need
  2. How much he or she is projected to have
  3. Whether he or she is projected to have a gap

It also includes useful information on ways to improve or maintain retirement readiness.

While the Retirement Readiness Statement reports a retirement income projection based on the information on record and a few standardized assumptions, participants can always customize their projections in real-time by visiting the online Retirement Readiness Tool in Benefits Access. This tool offers easy-to-use interactive “sliders” to help illustrate how various budgeting factors could impact retirement income. Participants can manipulate retirement savings, contribution rates, anticipated expenses in retirement, retirement age and other variables to narrow the gap between their projected income and goal.

While the Retirement Readiness Tool helps guide participants as they prepare for retirement, some may prefer a more customized financial plan. That’s why we offer one-on-one financial planning from EY Financial Planning Services at no charge to eligible participants in General Board-administered retirement plans and programs.2 EY financial planners are available Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Central time at 1-800-360-2539.

1 Clergy who have indicated their intent to retire and participants who are not eligible to use the Retirement Readiness Tool in Benefits Access will not receive a statement. Participants for whom compensation is not reported to the General Board and participants with reported compensation less than $10,000 will receive a mailing encouraging them to use the Retirement Readiness Tool for a customized projection.

2 Costs for these services are included in the General Board’s administrative expenses that are paid for by the funds. Services are available to active participants and surviving spouses with account balances, and to retired and terminated participants with account balances of at least $10,000.

Use Contribution Management to Streamline Plan Administration

Did you know that you can use Contribution Management to make your plan administration more efficient? Through Contribution Management, you can:

If you use Contribution Management, and provide compensation and contribution elections through Benefits Access Portal, the General Board can calculate contribution amounts for you—allowing you to edit the contribution amounts online if necessary. Or, you can calculate the contribution amounts and upload the contribution file yourself after updating compensation and contribution rate information in Benefits Access Portal. By ensuring that compensation and contribution elections are current and accurate in Benefits Access Portal, your participants will receive comprehensive Retirement Readiness Statements and can use the Retirement Readiness Tool more effectively.

If you are interested in learning more about Contribution Management, you may contact the Pension Administration Team at pateam@gbophb.org or 1-800-851-2201—select option 3, then press 2. You may also simply request Contribution Management access by submitting a completed Security Administration Form, checking the “Plan Sponsor Admin” box in Part 2. Be sure to read Benefits Access Portal for Plan Sponsors—Quick Tips, which is available under Resources on the General Board website at www.gbophb.org. Additional information about the benefits of using Contribution Management is available in our e-learning presentation Introducing Contribution Management.

Agency Name Change—Coming in July 2016

Over the past 107 years the scope of the agency’s mission has evolved and so has our name. In fact, our name has changed five times to incorporate new aspects of the work we do in support of those who serve the Church.

For many years we’ve been known as the “General Board of Pension and Health Benefits”—which encompasses our role in pension and retirement plan administration, and health plans and programs—but our current agency name does not convey the important work of our Investments division. At approximately $21 billion in assets under management, the General Board is the largest denominational investor and among the top 100 of all U.S. pension funds. For that reason, in July 2016 we are changing the name of the agency to “Wespath Benefits and Investments.”

If you think you’ve heard our new agency’s name before, you’re right! We’ve used this name since 2011 to refer to our Investments division, and now we will elevate it as the official agency name.

The name honors John Wesley, the founder of Methodism and a strong advocate for social justice. It also implies other Wesleyan philosophical tenets: the importance of physical health, stewardship and caring for God’s creation. In our new name, “Wes”—recognizes and honors John Wesley, while “path”—refers to our goal of providing participants and institutional clients with a path to follow in achieving health, investment and retirement objectives.

In July 2016, “Wespath Benefits and Investments” will replace the “General Board of Pension and Health Benefits” as the name of the agency in all communications and materials you receive from us. If you have any questions about the impact of this change, contact the General Board at 1-800-851-2201.

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